Names of land grabbers

It takes us by surprise that the land ministry failed to supply the list of people who have grabbed government land to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Land Ministry even after being specifically asked to do so. From the report in The Daily Star on Friday it becomes clear that though the ministry officials were informed on March 14 about the agenda for the next meeting, they could not produce the list of influential people who have illegally took possession of government land. One cannot really blame the parliamentary body for expressing anger at the inefficiency of the officials involved with the land survey task and for failing to come up with the updated list.

The surprising part of the story is that the land ministry itself had furnished statistics from time to time in the past on the land grabbing incidences. Therefore, it is not clear why the officials could not meet the terms knowing fully well the gravity of the issue.

Grabbing of government land is a malaise that apparently refuses to go away no matter what measures are taken by the relevant law enforcing authorities including the ministry concerned. The situation has turned from bad to worse in the past years with reckless grabbing of land, forests and wetlands by people close to power across the country.

We appreciate the initiative taken by the Parliamentary Standing Committee to unearth the extent of land grabbing and the people behind the illegal activities. We urge the committee to delve further and get to the bottom of this land-grabbing phenomenon.

At the same time we would like to stress that the ministry concerned in no way can take it lightly and fail to submit the required list. It constitutes a contempt of the parliament.