Saving government's lands from grabbers

BANGLADESH is a country where land is in short supply. Every effort

needs to made, therefore, to conserve land or to ensure its best possible
utilisation. Specially, government-owned or 'khas' lands are required to
be kept free from squatters and grabbers. Such lands form a particularly
valuable asset. In this context, the views recently expressed by the law
minister at a meeting in Dhaka merit attention. The minister has noted
that laxity on the part of a section of government officials and also some
legal practitioners, appointed by the authorities of the government, have
been responsible for non-recovery of 'khas' lands at different places
including those in Dhaka and other cities. The question remains whether
those responsible for ensuring the retention of government's title to its
own lands will take note of what the minister concerned has said and do
the needful for the purpose. Many 'khas' lands are found to remain
tangled by legal hurdles because of the nexus of such officials and private
occupiers.

The usurpation of governmental lands is one of the major problems that

make it all the more difficult for the authorities concerned to undertake
properly their development projects or uplift schemes. From distribution
of lands to the landless cultivators to even finding lands for the
establishment of power generating plants that the country badly needs,
the establishment of all sorts of public utilities are getting hampered for
reasons of scarcity of land. Buying land from private owners -- some of
whom may not be willing also to be so dispossessed -- involves greater
costs in time and money for the government. The progress of high-
priority public projects stagnate as a result. Thus, seen from any
perspective, the retention of government's possession over its lands,
ought to be seen as a very important issue.

But this vital matter of concern is being poorly addressed at the moment.
It has continued to be an easy practice for a long time for locally powerful
individuals to establish their control over government's lands all over the
country. They usually occupy the lands and set up their various
enterprises in the grabbed lands. Individuals with money, influence and
connections both to the underworld and the political power matrix, are,
thus, found to be occupying government's lands. Unauthorised structures
of hybrid types are established in such lands; their unlawful possessors
are deriving every financial benefit from either running them directly or
from getting rents. They have also succeeded in tampering with land
records to make fictitious legal claims over such lands.

Typically, government's reaction is to start a case against such grabbers.

But the process gets bogged up in extremely tedious legal procedures.
Besides, and more significantly, government represents itself in these
cases through its lawyers who are very poorly paid in contrast to the
grabbers who pay lucrative fees to their lawyers and sometimes even
ensure the inactivity of government lawyers through underhand deals.
Government's pleaders are sometimes seen not even coming to courts
during hearing and the occupiers, are, thus, able to get one-sided verdict
in their favour.

From this most unacceptable neglect, government has already lost its
claim over thousands of acres of landed properties and would suffer more
losses in the future. Very urgent actions are necessary to check and
reverse this trend. For this, real incentives or motivation must be created
by the government for its legal practitioners to defend its own properties
through substantially and appropriately increasing their fees and other
benefits. A truly efficient and accountable system must be introduced to
ensure that they do their work with sincerity and it becomes impossible
for anyone to so easily lay hands on public properties and consolidate the
usurpation.