Awami League leader Suranjit Sengupta yesterday said enactment of the Vested Property Return (Amendment) Act might be delayed for an indefinite period unless its bill is placed in the next parliament session.

Suranjit, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on law ministry, said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina postponed its tabling in the parliament although the cabinet approved the bill last November.

The prime minister did this because of her belief that different opinions exist among the Hindu community leaders on the draft act, he added.

"There exist differences and there will. But it should not cause delay in the bill placement," Suranjit said at a discussion titled Vested Property Return (Amendment) Act 2009 and Peoples' Expectation.

Association for Land Reform and Development (ALRD), Vested Property Act Prevention Movement, and Sammilito Samajik Andolon organised it at National Press Club.

Suranjit said the parliamentary standing committee is there to look at the amendments if necessary and will make it ready for placement in the parliament.

If the bill is sent back to the ministry for another drafting, vested quarters are ready to take opportunities to impose tangle, he said.

The vested property, which was termed enemy property before the Liberation War in 1971, was left behind by the Hindus during the 1947 partition and the India-Pakistan war in 1965.

The government took the properties' ownership by enacting the enemy property act after independence in 1971, and renamed the law as the Vested Property Actin 1974.

The law still retains the fundamental ability to deprive a Bangladeshi citizen of his/her property simply by declaring them as enemies of the state.

Properties of Hindu families that left the country have been confiscated as they were labeled as state enemy.

ALRD Executive Director Samsul Huda said the Act affected 44 per cent of the country's 27 lakh Hindu households who

have lost 26 - lakh acres land.

The incumbent government drafted the Vested Property Return (Amendment) Act, the cabinet approved it, but the prime minister postponed its placement in parliament suspecting differences among the Hindu leaders.

Speakers said the act should contain provisions to form district level tribunals to setde the cases involving vested properties.

They also demanded ensuring rights of the owners' heirs irrespective of sex to the property, and prioritising members of the same family of the original owner while returning the property.

lustice Golam Rabbani supported the proposals, except the formation of district level tribunals.

The speakers unanimously said the government should enact the Act in consultation with all concerned groups.

AKM Mozammel Haque, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on land ministry, Gono Forum leader Pankaj Bhattacharya, Adivasi leader Sanjeeb Drong, and Nijera Kori coordinator Khushi Kabir, spoke among others.