Land grabbing by public representatives

ISN'T it an irony? What can become of a country where the people's representatives use their high position to grab public land? And even before this well known fact was officially acknowledged by a state minister recently, we had been highlighting this issue from time to time. But of no avail.

The remarks of the state minister for law were made at a roundtable on accessibility of extreme poor people to khas land held in Dhaka on Sunday. The greatest impediment to the landless getting khas land is the unchecked gobbling up of government land by members of parliament cutting across party line. And of course in truck with them are the assistant commissioners of land.

The fact is that such illegal capture of government property is not restricted to land nor MPs only. Even rivers are being filled up, mostly by people directly or indirectly linked to the politicians and the powerful. This paper had carried a detail report in October 2011 on how the Buriganga is being filled up by a company belonging to a lawmaker. And there has been nothing more than the expected denial by him.

While we thank the state minister for his frank admission, we would have thanked him even more if he would have done something to mitigate the situation. He recounted the way that such illegal acts are being committed and identified the agencies involved in it. We would rather that these corrupt government officials as well the MPs are made to account for their act.