Steps to stop illegal land business in Kuakata

A signboard displaying the local administration's warning against illegal sale of any land in Kuakata. Photo: STAR

Kalapara upazila administration has hung notices against unauthorised land business in Kuakata as part of the authorities' initiative to free the area from illegal occupiers.
"The authorities concerned did not give any permission to any developer or housing company for land business in Kuakata area under Real Estate Act, 2010," reads the notice hung at different places including Kuakata, Mohipur and Kalapara upazila town recently.
"Local influential people, developers and housing companies have continued illegally occupying khas land in these areas including Kuakata, Kawar Char and Char Gangamoti," said Abdul Awal, assistant commissioner (AC Land) in Kalapara.
"As they are also selling these lands illegally to others, we hung notices to warn people concerned against cheating. We will conduct drive to recover the occupied khas lands very soon," he said.
When contacted, Shah Alam Sarder, additional deputy commissioner (ADC -Revenue), said, "Several developers and housing companies are engaged in land trade in the area for long. They put signboards and advertise in different dailies and television channels to attract buyers although they have no approval from the authorities concerned for it."
"People often report to us that they bought land in Kuakata area but the sellers failed to give them the respective plots. And so, we hung the warning notices to save people from cheating," he said.
There are 1,752 acres of khas land, including 562 acres of agricultural land and 1190 acres of non-agricultural land in four moujas including Latachaplee (Kuakata), Char Chaplee, Gongamoti and Kawer Char but most of these lands have already been illegally occupied, said a source of Kalapara upazila land office.
On April 17 this year, Patuakhali district administration through a mobile court drive removed most of the illegal signboards from the khas lands in Kuakata.
The administration also removed over 400 illegal structures from there during drives on August 8 and November 29 this year.