What happened to hilly land?

The Anti-Corruption Commission has asked the Cox's Bazar deputy commissioner for a comprehensive report on Uttaran cooperative housing in Kolatoli of the hilly beach town.

They sent a letter in late October in this regard.

The report at length would focus on how much khas (public) land has been leased out to Uttaran, how much they occupy and whether they have handed out the government land to private individuals, Md Ali Hossain, deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazar, told The Daily Star.

The district administration has formed a committee headed by Additional Deputy Commissioner Abdur Rahman and Assistant Commissioner Nazim Uddin as member secretary to prepare the report.

The committee is scheduled to visit the housing scheme and hold a hearing of the parties concerned there today.

“Primarily, our report will focus on hill cutting for housing and whether the society has transferred ownership of the leased khas land to private individuals,” said Hossain. “One foremost question will be on what basis, if at all, they have sold khas land and where the money is.”

The money in exchange for a public property must go to the public treasury, said the deputy commissioner. 

It has always been an intriguing question how a recorded hilly area was leased out for housing, he said.

The housing estate has built buildings on both sides of the Kolatoli Bypass Road, which itself was built across hilly land, he said. It is public knowledge that structures are being built on hilly khas land on both sides of the road, he said.

The Daily Star carried a report on the housing scheme headlined “Hills lost to housing” on July 7 this year.

On anonymity, an ACC director general said, “We wanted to know from the deputy commissioner the exact status of the Uttaran housing and what has happened to the hilly khas land.”

ACC Director AKM Zayed Hossain Khan, who signed the letter, said they have a practice of calling for a report, where necessary, prior to launching an enquiry into an allegation.

Usually, they wait for a month for such a report. And on getting the report, they either request relevant authorities for a legal action or initiate one by themselves, said the ACC director.

 “We would look into, among other issues, whether public land has been sold to private individuals,” said a member of the committee seeking anonymity.

The committee head Abdur Rahman said, “We are yet to get our findings and prepare the report.” He declined to say anything else on record.

Assistant Commissioner Nazim Uddin, member secretary of the committee, said they would look into all aspects of the issue.