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Grabbers feast on railway land

2407 acres of land in West Zone of Bangladesh Railway occupied

EAM ASADUZZAMAN, Nilphamari
Influential people have occupied 2407 acres of land in West Zone (WZ) of Bangladesh Railway (BR) but no steps have been taken by the authorities concerned to free the vast areas.
Md Younus Ali, railway divisional estate officer at Pakshi in WZ, said there is a total of 36,707 acres of land in Pakshi and Lalmonirhat divisions in the region. The land is mainly situated in Khulna, Saidpur, Parbotipur, Iswardi, Sirajganj, Lalmonirhat, Pakshi, and Gaibandha.
Of them, 15,181 acres are used for operational purposes as rail stations, rail tracks, warehouses, workshops, railway hospitals, staff quarters, etc and 8,314 acres have been given on lease to individuals as agricultural and commercial plots while the rest are abandoned, said Younus.
Influential occupiers blessed by political parties have already occupied 2407 acres of land in WZ. Of them, 1957 acres in Pakshi division and 450 acres in Lalmonirhat have been grabbed, he said.
As per existing land price, value of occupied railway land in WZ is more than hundreds of crore taka, said Younus.
Trade union leader Aminur Rahman, also the former president of Railway Karigar Parishad, said, with support of political leaders and a few corrupt rail officials, grabbers dare to violate rules to build multistoried markets, factories and high-rise residential buildings on railway land and earn money by giving them on rent to banks, insurance companies, etc.
Railway authorities sometimes launch drives to remove illegal structures and free the land from the grabbers but the drives are stopped midway under political pressure or mutual understanding, alleged Aminur.
Works department in Saidpur informed that there are 2488 rail quarters for accommodating officers and workers of country's largest Saidpur rail workshop but 1470 are occupied.
Refuting the allegation of land grabbing by some rail officials, Sub-assistant Settlement Officer of BR in Saidpur Monwar Hossain said Saidpur municipality occupied 25.75 acres of railway land in the municipality area and allowed illegal occupants to build multi storied structures there.
To free the land, railway filed cases with courts and got verdict from lower court in Nilphamari and the High Court, said Monwar.
But the municipality, in collaboration
with wealthy grabbers, raised funds for making the matter lengthy by filing new cases one after another to continue occupation, he said.
In September this year, railway estate department filed a case against businessman Joinal Abedin, a leader of Saidpur municipality unit of Jatiya Party, for illegally occupying railway land on Shahid Zikrul Huque road in the municipality. He later constructed a fivestoried market on it, said Monwar.
Refuting allegation of occupying railway land, Joinal said a case is going on in the HC between railway and Saidpur municipality over taking ownership of25.75 acres of land on which his building is situated.
"It is confusing who actually owns the land and to whom shall I pay taxes," he said.
Divisional estate officer of Lalmonirhat division Sujauddoula said the government is going to frame a fresh policy to recover occupied rail land as present policy is not up to date.