4,000 Acre Rail Land: Locked in litigation

Bangladesh Railway (BR) is in a legal predicament as it struggles to recover around 4,000 acres of land grabbed by private citizens and public entities alike.

Currently, it is tangled up in over 2,000 cases -- 1,184 under the east zone and 892 under the west zone of BR, according to railway documents.

Some of the cases were filed by BR against illegal occupants, although most of them were filed against the railways by individuals and different public and private organisations.

According to the railways ministry's 2021-22 annual report, BR owns 61,860 acres of land -- 24, 441 acres in east zone and 37, 419 cares in west zone.

Of the total land, 3,842 acres -- equivalent to over 15 square kilometres -- are under illegal occupation, according to the report published early this year.

Of its total land, the BR uses 31,569 acres for railway operations and leased out 14,473 acres to different individuals and entities. Another 11, 976 acres remain unused.

Many influential people have long been occupying railway lands, often in association with some unscrupulous railway staffers.

After the formation of a separate railways ministry in 2011, rail ministers almost on a regular basis informed parliament about the scale of the encroachment and vowed to recover the lost land.

Indeed, it carried out several drives through its four divisional estate offices to evict the grabbers and demolish the illegal structures. But the grabbers returned within a few days in most cases due to lax monitoring.

However, sources said BR sometimes carries out eviction drives upon pressure from the high-ups, which is actually "an eyewash".

In most cases, the illegal occupants re-occupy the land paying bribes to the influential and crooked rail staffers, meaning such drives actually increase the occupation rate, they said.

A TOOL FOR ILLEGAL OCCUPATION

On instructions of the parliamentary standing committee last month, the rail ministry prepared a detailed report on the land-related cases, and submitted it before the committee on Thursday, sources said.

According to the report, railway is fighting 2,076 land cases in different courts across the country, including 562 in the two divisions of the Supreme Court.

Of the total cases, at least 38 were filed by BR while rest were filed by different individuals and organisations against the railways.

Those sued by BR include Bangladesh Chemical Industries Ltd, the district administrations of Naogaon, Faridpur, Kushtia, Rajshahi, Lalmonirhat, Khulna City Corporation and Khulna Development Authority. Mayors of Syedpur and Ishwardi municipalities, and Khulna Bus Malik Samity, among others, have also been sued by BR.

On the other hand, individuals are the plaintiffs in most of the cases filed against BR. However, several government ministries and agencies, including jute and textile ministry and the Kushtia district administration, also sued BR.

Officials of the Chief Estate Office and Divisional Estate Office – the two offices responsible for dealing with the railways lands – come from the admin cadre on deputation. 

Sujan Chowdhury, chief estate officer (east) of BR, said people often filed cases when rail officials conduct eviction drives. Besides, many people sued the railways using fake documents to claim land ownership.

"Most of these cases have been filed so they can keep occupying railways land," he told The Daily Star yesterday.

"When an individual can afford to pay even Tk 1 lakh for a lawyer, we cannot manage even Tk 20,000 for a lawyer to deal the cases timely," he said, adding that his office has only about a third of the 145 approved manpower.

Rezaul Karim, chief estate officer (west) of BR, gave a similar account about the grabbers and pending cases.

BR sources said there are only three posts of law officer in the 47,637-strong organogram of BR. Of them, there are only two posts for law officers in the two zones and a law officer at the BR headquarters, which is currently vacant.

"How can we deal with so many cases with this poor manpower?" said one official.

Asim Kumar Talukder, general manager (west) of BR, said the court cases are a major hurdle for them to recover the land.

He also said the law section of BR is too weak to put up the tough fight required for the recovery of the land.

Replying to a question, he said rail land often gets reoccupied as the rail authorities cannot put them to proper use in a quick manner, as the existing leasing process is time-consuming.

Rail Secretary Humayun Kabir and BR Director General Quamrul Ahsan did not respond to our requests for comments.