Occupation of Khas Land in Sea Beach Area
Realtor faces eviction case in Kuakata
Developer company Ocean City Ltd sets a signboard claiming ownership of this khas (government) land in Kuakata sea beach, defying an order from a mobile court that conducted a drive to free the area from illegal occupiers recently.Photo: STAR
Kalapara upazila land office has filed an eviction case against housing company Ocean City Ltd that has continued construction work by occupying khas (government) lands in Kuakata sea beach area. Receiving the case on May 26, upazila revenue office has sent it to Patuakhali deputy commissioner (DC) to take lawful step to recover the government land from occupiers. A mobile court formed by the DC of Patuakhali on April 16 this year stopped all works of a hotel that Ocean City authorities were constructing on Kuakata sea beach, Kalapara land office sources said. The mobile court removed signboards from the khas land that was occupied by Ocean City and others developer companies on the beach. It also asked Ocean City authorities to submit within next seven days papers of the land that they occupied but the housing company failed to show any valid papers in this regard. As the company recently restarted the construction work of the hotel in defiance to the mobile court order, Mohipur union land office submitted a report to Kalapara upazila land office and the latter filed the eviction case. A few years ago, some occupiers led by the Ocean City occupied 4.77 acres of khas land on nine plots of Mouja No 34 with the help of a false khatiyan (record document) No 1346. Later Kalapara upazila land office cancelled the false khatiyan on October 20 in 2004 according to an order issued by the then additional deputy commissioner (Revenue) of Patuakhali, land office sources said. But Ocean City authorities continued their attempt to occupy those khas lands through different ways and started construction work to set up a hotel, ignoring the district and upazila administrations. When contacted, Md Milon Bhuiyan, project director of Ocean City, said, "We purchased land form local men and we are demanding its ownership according to a civil court order. I did not know about the eviction case filed against Ocean City." Abdul Awal, assistant commissioner (Land) of Kalapara upazila, also the acting upazila nirbahi officer, said, "We sent the case to the DC office to evict occupiers from the khas land. We will also take such steps against all other occupiers to recover government lands on the sea beach." Lawful steps will be taken against all occupiers immediately, said Amol Krishna Mondol, acting DC of Patuakhali.
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