Land for PBI Office: JS body initiates probe into ‘anomaly’
A parliamentary watchdog yesterday formed a three-member sub-committee to investigate alleged irregularities in the acquisition of one acre (100 decimal) of land to build an office of Police Bureau of Investigation in Kolatoli, Cox's Bazar.
The parliamentary standing committee on the land ministry took the step through a meeting at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
Ruling Awami League MP Habibur Rahman from Bogura-5 was made convener of the sub-committee while two other AL MPs -- Monoranjan Shil Gopal from Dinajpur-1 and Umme Fatema Nazma Begum from a reserved seat for women in parliament -- were made members.
The sub-committee was asked to submit its report to the standing committee within a month, Mokbul Hossain, chief of the parliamentary watchdog, told this correspondent.
The Daily Star had run a report in May on widespread irregularities in the acquisition of land to build a PBI office in Kolatoli Bypass Road area, adjacent to the Chattogram-Cox's Bazar highway, he added.
"After going through the report, the committee thought that a massive forgery took place in the land acquisition process. We came to know that huge sums of money were misappropriated through the forgery in the land acquisition."
Mokbul further said the real land owners didn't get the acquisition compensation money while a syndicate embezzled huge sums through forgery during the land acquisition.
An investigation by the Anti-Corruption Commission found that a syndicate in collaboration with land office officials embezzled around Tk 29.29 crore of public money against acquisition of 80 decimal of land on fake papers, keeping the real landowners in the dark.
The government had disbursed around Tk 31.13 crore for the acquisition, as per the documents seen by The Daily Star.
An ACC official with knowledge of the forgery told this newspaper that only one person had withdrawn compensation money using genuine documents while 15 others used fake powers of attorney and other illegal means to siphon off the public money.
Standard government procedure was also not followed in the acquisition of the one acre (100 decimal), the ACC found.
The syndicate not only faked documents to grab the land but also threatened the genuine landowners to not raise their voice against the illegal acquisition, found the investigation.
Documents obtained by The Daily Star show the home ministry gave administrative approval for land acquisition for the PBI office on October 1, 2018.
An administrative building, barracks, and other structures are set to be built on the land in Cox's Bazar, according to PBI documents.
Standing committee members Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, Monoranjan Shil Gopal, Mohammad Habibur Rahman, Mohammad Shahjahan Mia, Umme Fatema Nazma Begum and Mohammad Aminul Islam, among others, participated in yesterday's meeting.
The meeting recommended the authorities concerned take necessary steps for speedy transfer of all employees who have completed three years in service in the offices of the assistant commissioners (land) across the country.It also suggested taking necessary measures to monitor whether the genuine allottees of the government's Guchhagram project are living in Guchhagrams and to investigate whether land taken over on lease for agricultural use is being used for other purposes.
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