Editorial
Lost land areas should return to public
Punish illegal occupants, adopt land use policy and stick by it
THE plunder of land resources has reached a critical state as is evident from the disclosure in parliament of the land minister and state minister for environment and forest on Thursday. It is now known that around 13 lakh acres of khas land, both farm and non-farm, including large forest swathes, has been expropriated and held in illegal possession by individuals, industries and businesses over the years.
Such turning of public lands into personal fiefdoms is nothing short of a national betrayal perpetrated through connective tissues of power and influence over the years by default of the patently culpable variety. But now that the government has woken up to the criminal denial of resources that belong to the public it must go the whole hog in ensuring that the these are fully restored to the people. Basically, those who have committed the illegalities should be criminally charged with full weight of the powers of the state bearing down on them.
No government worth its salt in any country whatsoever of whatever size would have countenanced the land grabbing on any scale but this is all the more damning and culpable in our context, especially given the magnitude of expropriation blatantly taking place in such a land-short and populous country like Bangladesh.
It is the fundamental lack of an overarching land usage policy, far less implementation of any semblance of it, that has given a free hand to wheeling and dealing with our land resources. Therefore, what the startling disclosure about the extent of land loss to illegal possession should lead to are serious, energetic and focused efforts climaxing in the formulation of a balanced land use policy that is home grown and yet based on best practice methods projected into the future. We broadly need optimal land utilisation in such areas as forestry, habitat formation and sustenance, infrastructure building, industrialisation, agriculture, fishery and horticulture.
A land constrained country smarting under population pressure and the prospect of being a victim to global warming has all the requirements in the world to cater to basic demands for: a) housing; b) more food; and c) industrialisation to increase livelihood options. Each of these three basic claimants to land is as strong as the other. The population now hovering at 150 million is projected to be 220 million by 2025. To that extent, our basic needs are poised to multiply and in view of this overriding reality, it is a stupendous intellectual challenge to address such a perspective with an adequate, sustainable and effective land use policy. There is no trifling with a land management and usage policy and concrete steps towards it must be taken without any further loss of time.
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