Railway asked to recover its land from Mirza Abbas

A parliamentary committee yesterday asked Bangladesh Railway to recover about four acres of land near Kamalapur Railway Station which it said was "grabbed" by former housing minister and BNP leader Mirza Abbas.

The parliamentary standing committee on communications ministry also asked the authority concerned to take steps against officials involved in the process.

It also blasted the communications ministry for sending an additional chief engineer of Roads and Highways Department, who will retire next week, abroad for receiving training.

Mohammad Shahabuddin, the additional chief engineer who had obtained clemency from the now defunct Truth Commission, went on a 15-day tour to Australia, Japan, China and Malaysia a week ago to receive training.

Interestingly, he will have gone into retirement by the time he returns.

At the meeting the parliamentary body recommended forming a separate ministry for railway to improve and expand the sector and properly monitor its activities.

On the standing committee's claim that he grabbed the railway land, Mirza Abbas told The Daily Star that the committee has portrayed him and his family members "vindictively" circulating false information and that it does not know how to measure land.

"My father and my uncle kept possession of two to three bighas of land when the railway authority acquired land. We later built houses on that piece of land," Abbas, the joint secretary general of BNP, said.

After the standing committee's meeting, its chairman Sheikh Muzibur Rahman told reporters that Abbas took back "huge area of land" near Kamalapur Railway Station "by exerting influence" during the rule of the last BNP government.

He said the railway authority had acquired around 4 acres of land from Abbas' father and uncle.

"We have asked the railway authority to submit a detailed report on the issue within three days...We want to know how Abbas grabbed the railway land and which officials were involved in the process," Muzibur said.

Golam Maola Rony, a member of the standing committee, said Mirza Abbas and his family grabbed land worth about Tk 100 crore.

He said the government has acquired land across the country at different times and if Abbas gets back the land acquired from his family, all concerned will demand their land properties to be returned.

On the foreign trip of additional chief engineer Shahabuddin, committee chief Muzibur said it is a waste of public money to send abroad a government official, who will go into retirement within a week, for training.

"We asked the secretary of the communications ministry to submit a report on why the additional chief engineer was nominated for trainings in Australia, Japan, China and Malaysia," said Muzibur.

At its meeting the committee also discussed bringing the traffic control system under Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and the possibility of leasing out one or two roads and highways like the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway to the private sector for a certain period.