'Influential people occupy 88 percent khas land'

The discussion on 'Reviewing land laws relating to khas land distribution' was organised by Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (Blast) at the Cirdap auditorium.

"Though meant for the landless, the rich and influential people illegally occupy 88 percent of eight lakh acres of arable khas land while the landless poor possess only 12 percent," said Prof Abul Barakat while presenting a keynote paper.

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He said the total area of identified khas land including arable, non-arable and wetland in the country is 33 lakh acres.

The figure is far less than the actual area of such land as a huge portion of it still remains out of government records, said Barakat, a teacher of Dhaka University.

He said corruption at the land office is mainly responsible for unequal distribution of khas land,

"A beneficiary has to bribe Tk 7 to 10 thousand on an average and spend 72 working days to get the settlement of a piece of khas land," said Barakat, adding that according to research findings, 54 percent of the beneficiaries failed to retain their possession on the land.

He said due to criminalisation of economy over a period of three decades, most powerful and influential ten lakh people represent one economy while rest of the population, who are deprived and destitute, represent another one.

"A total of 80 percent land is owned by only 10 percent of the total population, most of whom are bureaucrats, politicians, social elite and influential quarters," said Sheikh Salahuddin of Blast research cell while making a presentation.

According to non-government sources, the total number of landless poor in the country is 68 percent of the population, he said.

Though the land ceiling per family was brought down to 20 acres from 33.3 acres under the Land Reform Ordinance-1984, a significant amount of land could not be retrieved due to extreme pressure form the influential landowners, Salahuddin added.

Kazi Ebadul Haq, a retired justice, said the government must have political commitment, as corruption is all pervading, to ensure just distribution of land among the actual peasants.

Land ceiling has to be brought down further and the government should acquire cultivable land of permanent urban residents to distribute among the genuine cultivators, he added.

Prof Muzaffer Ahmad of Transparency International Bangladesh, Abdul Kader of Samata, Badiul Alam Majumder of Hunger Project and Advocate Nijamul Haq took part in the discussion moderated by Khushi Kabir of Nijera Kori.