A high-powered government taskforce is going to recommend digitisation of the country's entire land records and turning district administration offices into monitoring bodies from its present role of service provider to ensure transparency and reduce corruption.
Led by former adviser to a caretaker government Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury, the five-member taskforce said a commission should be formed comprised of government and non-government experts to spearhead modernisation of records and land registration system.
The proposal notes that the entire reform is possible with the present strength of the government and using local resources without having to take foreign consultancy.
The government taskforce on "Modernised Land Management and Registration" finalised its proposals after seven months' work since February 12. It is going to submit the report and proposal today during a meeting of the Regulatory Reform Commission of the government.
The other members of the taskforce are: Member Secretary Apurba Kumar Biswas, Land Ministry Secretary Abu Mohammed Moniruzzaman, Law Secretary Kazi Habibul Awal, and economist Sajjad Zohir.
"The government can modernise the land records, management and registration system using its own resources. Plus, it will create huge job opportunities and in the end it will reduce land related problems and increase government revenues," said one of the members of the commission requesting anonymity.
"This is also important to preserve our valuable cultivable and forest land," he added.
In their proposal, the taskforce said the entire activities of land purchase and registration should be done by Directorate of Land Records and Surveys and registration department while the assistant commissioner (AC) of land should act as a monitor rather than a service provider.
Right now there are six government agencies including Directorate of Land Records and Surveys, registration department, district administration, divisional commissioner, quasi-judicial and judicial systems dealing with land affairs.
The taskforces said most of the existing land survey records in land offices, including the Cadastral Survey (CS), conducted in 1890-1940, and Revisional Settlement (RS), conducted in 1969-83, are in printed form. They have worn out and are easy to forge. The land survey documents should be digitised immediately to provide prompt service as well as keep records updated.
At present, the department of land records and survey conducts survey activities after a few decades and takes a few years to finish its work.
Right now the government land offices have CS records of 59,293 Mouzas in print on 95,736 worn out sheets of paper. Even though the map was drawn maintaining scales but the measurement of lines is not mentioned in those old maps.
Following the East Bengal State Acquisition and Tenancy Act-1950, the government received a large area of land from traditional feudal lords. But the government did not have ownership and proper records of those lands due to lack of proper survey and records preservation system.
The system of land survey is so sluggish that no survey was conducted in Dinajpur and Patuakhali since the CS and the East Bengal State Acquisition. No survey was done in the three hill districts, Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachhari, the taskforce report said.
Under the proposed system, the upazila or zonal land offices will be able to keep land records locally.
All Mouza maps and registration forms have to be scanned and saved as read-only so that no opportunities for tampering exist.
The computerised land record system will bring transparency in the sector, help government earn more revenue and ensure proper use of land, which is necessary in a densely-populated country like Bangladesh. The modernised land record system will reduce the number of land related cases, an enormous problem.
The taskforce also proposed updating current land valuations in different categories so that no one can show lower value of a land, a key factor in land related corruption.
The taskforce also said the proposed commission may work on introducing specialised land cadre.
The taskforce said in their report that the present land management system has been causing not only economic losses but social unrest, corruption and chaos in family life.
Land disputes are the main reason for no less than 70 to 80 percent civil and criminal cases. At present about 32 lakh land dispute cases are pending with courts.
What is most astounding is the fact, reported earlier in newspapers, that 15 crore people are accused in land-related cases when the country's population is a crore less than that. The wonder has its roots in the plaintiffs' habit of accusing the same people over and over again in as many cases as possible.
The taskforce said the modernised system will up land revenue mainly by updating land categories. Many areas were recorded by the RS as agricultural or residential areas and those areas were turned into residential or commercial areas but remained agricultural areas on paper.
The difference in terms of tax is immense. The rate for agricultural land development is Tk 1 per decimal, it is Tk 22 for residential plots and Tk 125 for commercial ones.