Unending wait for plots by Rupnagar allottees

Structures mushroom on Rupnagar plots as the dispute between two ministries continues for decade.Photo: STAR

Hundreds of plot-allottees at Rupnagar housing project in Pallabi are caught in the middle of a decade-old land dispute between two ministries.
The dispute started after the Ministry of Housing and Public Works and the Ministry of Religious Affairs leased two sets of plots of the project to two groups of allottees.
The allottees who got plots from the religious affairs ministry are now under an eviction threat from the National Housing Authority (NHA) under the housing ministry while the other allotteess have been awaiting possession of their plots since 1994.
"I have been in fear of eviction by the housing authorities even though I have been on the plot for the last 20 years and I am a registered lessee with the office of the Waqf administration," said Shah Alam who got a plot from the religious affairs ministry.
Legal suits over the possession rights of the plots are pending with Dhaka Sub-Judge Court and the Supreme Court. Shah Alam is one of the petitioners to the Supreme Court.
According to officials at the law wing of NHA Dhaka division-1, the housing ministry first acquired the land at Duaripara in the area through Land Accusation Case 5-1972/73. In 1986, NHA, on behalf of the ministry, developed the area under a project aiming to solve housing problems of the middle and lower income groups.
In 1994, NHA leased out 474 plots to a group of people through a lottery. It collected Tk 80,000 for each katha of land from the lessees.
One of the lessees, Zakir Hossain, told Star City that he had paid all dues to NHA by 1996. According to the lease deed, a lessee is supposed to get possession the plot within a week. But Zakir is yet to get his plot.
“I am exhausted after spending so much time and money over the last one decade in pursuit of my land,” he said.
He blamed the NHA for his sufferings and he believes that NHA officials might be involved in shady activities that are causing the delay.
The NHA officials however said in 1994, when the NHA was preparing to hand over plots to the lessees, Absar Uddin and Mohiuddin Haider, on behalf of Ainuddin and Foyzunnesa Waqf Estate, claimed land rights over the disputed land and lodged a title suite with the second Sub-Judge Court, Dhaka, (case 78-93).
As the court issued an order in favour of NHA, the plaintiffs appealed against the court order with the High Court (HC) in 1996. The HC upheld the lower court verdict.
In 2000, Abul Kalam Ansari, another affiliate of the same Waqf Estate, filed a writ petition with the HC over the land rights. The HC verdict went in favour of NHA and it directed NHA to finalise the pending case at lower court.
The official-in-charge of NHA said the Waqf Estate affiliates have been continuing their battle over the land by filing back-to-back writ petitions and appeals with the HC and the Supreme Court since 2001.
Nurul Islam, executive engineer of NHA Dhaka division 1, said that this January a court order went in favour of NHA and now it is going to conduct an eviction drive in the area.
The administrator of Waqfs, Bangladesh was asked about the court order but he expressed ignorance about it. He said, the Waqf estate's latest writ petition with the SC and the case at the lower court are still pending.
While all this legal battle is going on, in 1997 the office of the Administrator of Waqfs under the religious affairs ministry started to lease out about 30 acres of the disputed land. Tk 20,000 was taken from the lessees for per katha of land.
An official at the office of Administrator of Waqfs, Bangladesh claimed that the land has been under their possession since 1950 and the evection drive initiated by the housing authority was illegal.
He added that secretary of the religious affairs ministry has sent a letter to secretary of the housing ministry requesting to stop NHA's 'unauthorised' eviction initiative.
Abu Yousuf Mohammad Hemayet Uddin, administrator of Waqfs, Bangladesh, said, "Cases are still pending at courts. So, the land rights of the plots are still unsettled."
The housing ministry should have notified the Waqf Estate and compensated before acquiring the land from Waqf Estate, but the ministry did not do any of that, he added.
He also suggested that formation of a technical committee with members from both ministries and the allottees might solve the problem.
But Kazi Tofazzal Hossain, a retired government official and allottee who did not get his plot after years of wait, posed in a saddened voice, “We have grown old and many of us have already passed away. When will they solve the problem and when will we get the plots?”