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Illegal industries pressurise govt

State minister tells House on industries set up on forestland

Staff Correspondent
The state minister for forest yesterday told the House that he was under pressure from some industrialists who set up factories and industries illegally on forest and khas land in Gazipur area as they were now asking for environment clearance.
"Many of the industries were not set up properly. But they are demanding clearance, arguing that investment of thousands of crore taka will be wasted if they do not get clearance." said State Minister Advocate Mostafizur Rahman Fizar.
Replying to a query of AL lawmaker Jahid Ahsan Russell, the state minister said this is a complicated issue and he thinks the House should hold discussion on it to determine ’ the ways to resolve the lem.
He also said his ministry has got bad image because of corruption and irregularities during the rule of immediate past alliance government.
At that stage, Speaker Advocate Abdul Hamid who was presiding over the sitting urged the state minister to initiate steps to come out of the crisis.
During the questionanswer session, the ruling alliance lawmakers also alleged that massive corruption and irregularities have occurred in the forest department during the tenure of the BNP-led alliance government. They also demanded actions against those involved in the misdeeds.
In response to a query of AL lawmaker Gias Uddin Ahmed, the state minister in his scripted answer said the forest department has lost control of around 1.30 lakh hectares of forestland.
“The forest departmen t has lost control over the land due to increasing number of landless people, industrialisation, unplanned urbanisation and other reasons," he said.
Fizar said legal action is being taken against the grabbers. "Recovery of forest land from the possession of landless people through involving them in social forestation is an ongoing process," he said.
He said the amount of forestland across the country is around 2.52 million hectares and the forest department has control on 1.52 million hectares.
LANDLESS FAMILIES
In reply to a query of ruling alliance lawmaker Lutfar Rahman, Land Minister Rezaul Karim Hira told the “HouSe" th^t the' numbef 'bT landless families is around 39,55,000 in the country-according to Agri Sample Survey 2005 conducted by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
The land minister said the area of Khas land fit for distribution among the landless families is 2,97,689 acres, including around 1,91,714 acres of agricultural land.
He said the government has planned to distribute khas land among the landless families in next financial year.
In reply to a query of Workers' Party lawmaker Rashed Khan Menon, the land minister said his ministry does not have any exact statistics on the number of farmers, who cultivate others' land.
However, the minister said the number of such fanners was 77,82,315 according co the Sample Survey 2005 of BBS.
COLLABORATORS
In reply to a query of ruling alliance lawmaker Shahriar Alam, State Minister for Liberation War Affairs said the government does not have any list of the names of collaborators and members of peace committees of 1971.
“Steps will be taken to prepare the list if the government so decides," the state minister said.