Recover Gazipur forest land from grabbers

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts yesterday asked the forest department to soon recover forest land in Gazipur from grabbers.

The parliamentary watchdog made the directive on the basis of audit objections raised by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), on the activities of the department between the fiscal year 1999-2000 to 2008-09, at its meeting held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.

According to the audit objections, a total of 12,684 acres of forest land is under illegal occupation in Gazipur.

The meeting also asked the authorities concerned to submit a progress report to the public accounts committee in this regard and stressed the need for formation of monitoring committees at central and divisional levels to ensure regular inspection and evaluation of the forest department's activities and to stop timber smuggling.

The committee also recommended bringing all the forest officials under accountability and assessment of the quantity of forest land, actual forest, numbers of trees as per species and total amount of wood should be continued.

Chaired by Committee Chairman Mahiuddin Khan Alamgir, the meeting was attended by its members M Abdus Shahid, Panchanan Biswas, Begum Rebeka Momin, M Shamsul Huq Tuku, Moin Uddin Khan Badol, AKM Maidul Islam and M Rustam Ali Farazi.