The government has prepared the draft of a new law to facilitate recovery of public and private lands from illegal occupation. Cabinet Secretary Dr Sandal Husain said yesterday.

Authorities have so far recovered Khas land worthTk 2689 crore from illegal occupation during the last six months, he said while briefing the newsmen at the sixth meeting of the secretary committee on monitoring of land recovery at the cabinet division at the secretariat.

T he new law has two key components. said Dr Saadat, one is how to evict the illegal occupiers of private land and structures and die other is how to provide ’effective relief to the forcibly dispossessed.'

"The new law will have provision so that police or administration does not turn down a case of illegal occupation as a civil matter but treats it as a criminal offense on immediate filing of the compliant," he said.

But there are still many ’subde' issues to be settled to bring the law into effect, he said.

Referring to the Land Ministry’s presentation at the meeting, he said that the government had recovered Khas land worthTk 634 crore during the first three months of the drive till January last and Tk 2055 crore during the following three months till April.

"We have asked for a detailed outline of the recovered land from the ministry so that we can prepare a specific mapping of it," he said.

Terming the land grabbing a deep-rooted problem of the country, the cabinet secretary said, "It is not our consideration whether the grabber is influential while carrying out recovery drive but what hinder the drive are inadequate funding, manpower and equipment."

Dr Saadat, who leads the 11-member secretary committee, also said that punishment for grabbing land has been increased up to five years of imprisonment from the existing two years, adding that it is often difficult to retain the recovered land.