Houses mushrooming in project area for false claim
Thousands of new houses are suddenly springing up in the middle of farmlands in nine mouzas of Kalapara upazila where the authorities recently issued acquisition notices to land owners for Payra sea port project.
The new structures are being built in a bid to change category of a piece of land from lower-priced agricultural to higher-priced homestead category -- a change that would enable landowners not only claim higher compensation for the land, but also claim compensation for the new structure at double the market price.
With that same objective in mind, many landowners are also building new structures beside existing structures on their land that is already marked under homestead category.
Patuakhali district administration has already handed over 2,372.79 acres of acquired land to Payra Port Authority (PPA) and they recently issued notices to landowners for the acquisition of another 6,562.27 acres of land from nine mouzas in the upazila, according to the land acquisition department at the office of Patuakhali deputy commissioner (DC).
The nine mouzas are Lalua, Nayakata, Banatipara, Chandupara, Lemupara, Char Baliatali, Dhulashar, Londa and Itbaria.
SM Munim Linkon, land acquisition officer at the office, said in their notice, served under section 4, to the landowners, it was clearly mentioned that new establishments cannot be built on their land for the purpose of changing land category to attain additional gains.
Compensation would not be given to any landowner who violates the condition and the particular property would be dropped from the list of compensation recipients once a joint survey conducted by the district administration and the PPA finds any such anomaly, he added.
Earlier, in June this year, Joint Director (Estate) of PPA Khondokar Nurul Haque in a letter informed the DC of Patuakhali of the new developments on the land marked for acquisition along the Ramnabad river bank and also raised the issue at the meeting of district development and coordination board.
During a recent visit to Char Chandupara village in Lalua union of the upazila, this correspondent found countless new houses, some still under construction, on agricultural land. Most houses were built with corrugated iron sheets on wooden frames.
Ponds were dug adjacent to many houses to elevate the construction sites with dirt dug out from the ponds. Some owners even released fish in the ponds and planted saplings around the ponds.
Delwar Hossain Chowdhury, a resident of the village, said with the objective of claiming higher compensation, he spent Tk 6 lakh to build two new houses on 2.83 acres of agricultural land that he inherited from his father.
Shahina Begum of the same village also admitted to have built three houses on 1.80 acres of her agricultural land at a cost of Tk 4 lakh.
Several influential locals provided her support during the construction after persuading her that the new structures would enable her to receive higher compensation, she said.
The influential people are extending all sorts of support to them with the condition that the landowners would pay them a portion of the extra compensation payment, said another villager Jamal Mollik.
Lalua Union Parishad Chairman Shawkat Hossain Biswas confirmed that a number of unscrupulous brokers are persuading villagers to build new houses on their land in order to make a quick buck.
Contacted, Patuakhali Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Md Mamunur Rashid said, public representatives in the area were informed of the matter and builders of the new structures would not get extra compensation.
Comments