JS body asks communications ministry
A parliamentary body yesterday set July 2011 as deadline for the communications ministry to recover around 20,000 acres of Bangladesh Railway land occupied by different influential individuals and organisations.
The standing committee on communications ministry also asked eviction of slums erected beside railway lines and stations across the country in phases after rehabilitating the residents.
The House body also suggested that the railway authorities amend its law, if necessary, to achieve this goal.
“Bangladesh Railway has about 63,312 acres of land and different influential individuals and parties are occupying around 20,000 to 23,000 acres,” Sk Mujibur Rahman, chief of the House watchdog, told reporters after a meeting held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
Rahman, also a ruling Awami League MP, said the committee has also asked the ministry to submit monthly progress reports on recovery of railway land.
Despite the body’s earlier directives to recover occupied land, no progress was evident in this regard.
“This time we have set a time frame for the job,” said the committee chief, adding that the government will be able to create 20,000 jobs by constructing different structures, including IT firms, shops and markets, once the recovery is complete.
About the necessity of amending related laws, Rahman said whenever efforts were made to recover occupied land, railway officials faced difficulties with age-old laws.
Asked about some influential political bigwigs who grabbed railway land, he said BNP standing committee member Mirza Abbas occupied around four acres of land near Kamalapur Railway Station when he was in charge of housing and public works ministry during the last BNP-Jamaat alliance rule.
Talking to The Daily Star on November 8 last year, Abbas denied the allegation.
