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Eviction from Grabbed Railway Land

Minister orders, secretary stops

Our Correspondent, Pabna
The railways secretary yesterday stopped the demolition of a resort that had been built on illegally occupied railway land in Pakshey, although the railway minister had given clear instructions to evict it only ten days ago.
The decision was made based on an advocate certificate collected yesterday by the resort owner from his lawyers. According to the certificate, the High Court on Monday had stayed the demolition for six months, but the written order of the court was yet to be released.
BNP-blessed businessman Akram Ali Khan Shanzu built the Pakshey Resort, the biggest illegal structure on the railway's west zone, occupying eleven acres of land in Pakshey divisional railway colony area during the tenure of the BNP-led four-party alliance government.
On September 1, Communications and Railways Minister Obaidul Quader, during a visit to Pabna, asked the authorities concerned to demolish all illegal structures on railway land.
Complying with the minister's instructions, a team led by Divisional Estate
Officer of Pakshey and Railway Magistrate Kiron Chandra Roy yesterday began demolishing the resort around 11:00am by deploying 100 day labourers and a bulldozer.
While the demolition was in progress, the authorities of Pakshey Resort showed an advocate certificate of the HC stay order collected from their lawyers, who had moved the petition. They asked the railway team to refrain from evicting them from the land forsixmonths.
The railway team, however, decided to go on with the demolition as they had not received any copy of the court order.
The drive stopped around 11:50am when Railways Secretary Mahbub-ur Rahman called over the phone and asked the railway magistrate to postpone the demolition. By then, the main entrance, office room and lobby of the resort had been demolished.
"We began the drive as per an eviction notice served to the resort authorities on September 3. But the railways secretary asked me to stop it referring to a High Court order. The secretary said he had not received any copy of the order, but he had come to know aboutit from the deputy commissioner (DC) of Pabna,” said the railway magistrate.
"The secretary said the decision in this regard would be taken after verifying the court order,” added the magistrate.
Railway officials in Pabna and at the Rail Bhaban in Dhaka expressed surprise over the railway secretary's and the DCs roles that went in favour of the land grabber.
Earlier on the day when the demolition started, the resort authorities took the advocate certificate of the
court order to the Pabna DC and requested him to do something to save the resort, a railway official in Pabna told The Daily Star.
“The DC immediately called the railway secretary and informed him of the stay order. This move has saved the illegal structure yet again,” added the official.
He said the railway had previously made several attempts to demolish the resort but failed due to the intervention of influential people.
Railway Magistrate Kiron Chandra Roy said that following the directive from the railways minister the authorities had served a notice on the resort administration last week asking them to remove the structure by September 11.
Resort owner Shanzu, however, denied receiving any notice. But railway sources claimed that resort manager Abul Kalam had received it.
Meanwhile, Hamidur Rahman, counsel for Shanzu, served a legal notice on the general manager of the BR west zone on September 5 asking him to stop die demolition. In the notice, the counsel claimed that the resort was built on private property.
“Someone misled the minister about the structure during his visit. It is not an illegal structure. This is not an original piece of land of the railway. My client established the resort on the property of Abdul Mannan as he [Mannan] permitted Shanzu to build it,” said the legal notice.
About 5,000 acres of railway land has long been occupied by various influential persons all over the country. Bangladesh Railway has taken several attempts over the years but failed to recover any land.