Defying court's order, 50 shops built on khas land

Defying a court's stay order, a local influential person has built 50 shops on 45 decimals of khas land in Barguna's Amtali upazila.

Kalam Peyada of Tarikata village continued building shops on the land in Arpangashia bazar area by engaging over 100 workers.

Upazila land office sources said Bokul Begum, wife of Kalam, in 2010 prayed to the then deputy commissioner (DC) for khas land in the area by hiding the information that she hails from a solvent family.

Later, Bokul Begum got one acre from the DC office with the help of Eusuf Ali, chainman of the land office. On September 25 this year, some Zakir Hossain, a local resident, submitted an allegation to DC Mokhlesur Rahman for cancellation of allocation of the land as Bokul is not landless.

Zakir Hossain then filed a case with Barguna Senior Assistant Judge's Court in this regard. The court recently imposed a ban on building any structure there.

Kalam started building wooden shops on the land from October 22. Fifty wooden houses have been built there till Sunday. This correspondent, on a visit to the area, saw the houses.

Md Nazmul Hawlader, a local resident, said Kalam and his wife are solvent. They have land and other properties and they got allocation of khas land illegally.

This allocation should be cancelled, he said.

Abdul Motin, vice president of Arpangashia union unit of Awami League, said Kalam took khas land by hiding his information and he started building shops occupying this land.

Eusuf Ali is a dishonest man and he helped many solvent men to get khas land by showing them as landless, he said.

Eusuf Ali now works at Hijla upazila land office after being transferred from here around two years back.

Contacted, Eusuf Ali refuted the allegation.

Kalam said he is building shops on the land allocated by the DC office to his wife.

Asked how he is building shops by expending several lakh taka If he is landless, Kalam said he is building these shops with the help of a local NGO.

Kamolesh Chandra Majumder, upazila assistant commissioner (land), said they got an allegation against Kalama's wife who received khas land though she is not landless. The allegation is under investigation. If she is found guilty, allocation of the khas land will be cancelled.

Upazila Nirbahi Officer Md Sarwar Hossain said they will take action after proper investigation.