Tejgaon industrial area: HC seeks list of 435 plot owners

The High Court yesterday wanted a list of the owners of 435 plots in Tejgaon industrial area along with the details of present status of the plots including their photographs.

During hearing of a 11-year-old suo-muto (voluntary) rule, the HC bench of Justice Abu Taher Md Saifur Rahman and Justice AKM Rabiul Hassan ordered the ministry of housing and public works to submit the list before it by March 15. The bench also asked the ministry to produce a layout plan and the relevant land acquisition case documents. The court fixed March 15 for resuming further hearing of the rule.

Assistant Attorney General Mohammad Nazrul Islam Khandaker submitted a report from the housing and public works ministry to the HC bench, saying that a total of 435 plots have been allocated in the area since 1950.

Lawyer Manzill Murshid appeared for Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, which became an intervener of this case in 2019, to assist the court for its disposal.

Following a report published on Bangla daily Samakal on March 24, 2010, another HC bench on May 9, 2012 issued a rule upon the authorities to explain why the allocation of the plots should not be cancelled. According to the report, the BNP-led four-party alliance government allocated the plots to some former BNP state ministers and journalists in 2006 by violating a Rajuk plan of 1994.