The landless people are being rehabilitated there by evicting them from government lands allotted to 'destitute' families of freedom fighters while some 730 acres of khas land are still under the possession of local influentials.

Forest department made repeated written requests to the district authorities to rehabilitate landless people by recovering lands encroached by local influentials to save trees under the 'social afforestation project'.

The district administration claimed to have 'taken control' of khas lands but in fact the encroachers are in possession of the lands.

This correspondent during a visit to the area found three big fishery projects set up by the influntials on the encroached lands covering 259, 212 and 258 acres of government land.

One of the projects, launched a decade ago on about 50 acres now occupies 259 acres and includes 80 ponds, dotted with at least 10,000 coconut trees.

"Our production is good and we will start IRRI cultivation soon", the project supervisor told this correspondent.

Cases were filed against the encroachers but nothing happened, sources said.

The eviction began about a month ago following an appeal to law enforcement authorities by the Bohumukhi Muktijoddha Shamabaya Samity (freedom fighters multipurpose cooperative society).

Several notices were served on the landless people living on 550 acres of government land to leave the area, the victims said.

The problem began when 196 'destitute' families of freedom fighters were officially given allotment of 392 acres where landless erosion victims were living since early 90s.

Some landless people facing eviction said they appealed to the authorities to allow them time till the Bangla months of Aswin/Bhadra to harvest their crops like paddy, sugarcane and vegetables. But their appeal went unheeded, they said.

A member of Muktijoddha Shamabaya Samity, said, "Government allotted me the land after scrutiny. Some land grabbers encroached our land and then sold it to the landless".

The forest department sources said they launched a social afforestation project on 250 acres this year and around 10,000 saplings of timber trees were planted. The Upazila Nirbahi Officer and the district administration asked them about a month ago to stop the afforestation programme.

They claimed that the lands were handed over to the forest department and a gazette notification was issued. As per law, these lands can not be leased or allotted to any body without permission forest department and the ministry.

When contacted, Noakhali Deputy Commissioner Mohammed Habibul Kabir Chowdhury said, "We have already taken control of lands encroached by the fisheries".

"If fake freedom fighters are found, land allotments to them will be cancelled. The landless families are encroachers there as the government allotted the lands through proper procedure," he said.

Asked about forest department's objection to rehabilitation of landless people on forestland, he said, "This is not forestland. When any char appears, forest department is usually asked to do afforestation. That does not mean the land is given to forest department.