3.97 acres of land of Phulbaria Rail station, which was the first railway station of the city prior to constructing Kamlapur Station, has been occupied illegally.
Even after 50 years of independence, it was not possible to recover that property of hundreds of crore. Three cases on the land of Bangladesh Railway are running in the court, among which the verdict of one case went on the favor of railway authority, but other two cases are still ongoing.
In the same way, a seven-storied market was built on the 2.87 acres of railways land at Anandabazar by occupying it illegally. However, due to political reasons, the land hasn’t been possible to be recovered.
Like Phulbaria and Anandabazar, 3,614 acres of Railways’ land have been occupied illegally. Moreover, there’s no record of 1,841 acres of its land. The occupiers have vanished documents and file associated with these lands. Some dishonest officers of estate division, railway headquarters and East and West Railway are allegedly involved in this disappearance act. With their assistance, the illegal occupiers have made the record of these lands to their name. Bangladesh Railway lost a total of 5,455 acres of lands.
However, the authorities’ concerned thinks the real situation is much more worse. According to them, Bangladesh Railway has 61, 860.28 acres of land, among which 30, 768.51 acres of land is being used in operational activities. In addition, there’re licensed and leased lands of 13,023 acres. The amount of occupied land which was still unused is 12,543 acres.
In reply to a question, Railway Minister Nurul Islam Sujon said, “The total amount of land belongs to Bangladesh Railway is 61, 820 acres, among which almost 3,614 acres lands were occupied illegally.
However, after the introduction of modern survey, Railway authority employed Sheltech Consultant Limited to conduct survey. According to its report, the amount of land belongs to railways is 59,755 acres, and the amount of land that went occupied illegally is 4,636 acres. But, even in the survey there’s no trace of 1,841 acres of land. After some tedious efforts, Railway East and Railway West have recovered 1,185 acres of land in last 10 years.
According to the law, there should be 10 feet of open spaces on both sides of the rail line. But, it has been observed that on both sides of the rail road from Kamlapur to Narayanganj, many illegal establishments and temporary market have been built.
The railway sources states that a total of 922 acres of Railways’ land are in the possessions of some government, semi-government and autonomous organizations, while 2,828 acres of land belongs to various private organizations. A total of 14, 473 acres of land have been given as lease for using in agricultural purpose, but they’re being used in commercial activities.
The incidence of highest amount of land occupied has occurred in Pakshi Department. Only 2,600 acres of land among 27,000 acres have been recovered. In Dhaka division, 3, 393 acres of land has been given as lease, and 684 acres are got occupied, while among 7, 271 acres of land in Chattogram division, 169 acres have been occupied.
According to the information of Railway, the total length of railroad in the country is almost 3,000 kilometers. In 90s, many of the rail roads and stations have been abandoned, which were got occupied illegally later on. Even, the selling of railways land was also visible. Especially, many political men from ruling parties got leased of more than 13,000 acres of land after 1991. The authorities concerned are worried that these lands might get dispossessed.
After the formation of Railway Ministry in 2011, four Ministers were in-charge of the ministry. They gave the assurance of recovering the occupied lands, but their assurance hasn’t been realized.
With a view to recover lost land, government had form ‘Railway Property Act 2016,’ where law has been made with the provision of maximum seven years of sentence for the crimes get committed in the sector. However, due to some invisible reasons, the railway authority hasn’t become strict to recover the lost land.
Secretary of Railway Ministry Md Humayun Kabir told The Bangladesh Pratidin, “Continuous operation is running to recover the lost land of Railways. Last year, 92.088 acres of land has been recovered. All the land will be recovered step by step.”
More than one officers of railway estate department anonymously said they’ve no vehicle or equipment to recover land or evict illegal establishments. So, they rent bulldozer and other equipment to conduct rescue drive. Rent of each bulldozer is Tk 40,000 to 50,000 per day, in addition to the cost incurred in employ labors for eviction drive. Rail authority goes to eviction drive with costly equipment regularly. But, they can’t keep the lands in their hands.
@The article appeared on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on October 3, 2022 and rewritten in English by Lutful Hoque
