At least 122 acres of land in different parts of the city owned by the Dhaka City Cor poration (DCC) are under Ilie gal occupation and those are yet to be recovered due to var lous administrative tangles and lack of initiative. DCC sources said

The lands, worth nearly Tk 500 crore at the current price were illegally occupied by un scrupulous people over a pe rlod and no concrete step was taken so tar to recover those. the sources added.

Many development works of the DCC were being hampered because of this illegal occupation. with the backing of a vested quarter" within the DCC

The DCC occasionally laun ches drives to evict some selected illegal occupants but the problem persists In many cases, these illegal occupants have gone to the extent of building concrete structures by exercising influence", the sources pointed out.

The DCC's relevant depart ment has lost the original land ownership map from its archive in the process of shifting to the new office and consequently cannot tell how much land the DCC originally owned, one source said The DCC might own much more lands, than what was estimated now they added

An official claimed that the failure of the DCC to recover Us lands could also be at Iributed to the lengthy judicial process in the country In many cases, there are court in junctions regarding the lands and the cases keep on drag gjng for years in the courts

It could not be known how much DCC land was now being disputed In the courts