Vested Property Return Act Yet to be Amended
Suranjit blames bureaucrats
The government will face a big challenge in the next elections if it does not enact the vested property return (amendment) act, to ensure land rights of the minority people, said ruling Awami League (AL) leader Suranjit Sengupta.
The act is yet to be passed [in parliament] due to the intervention of bureaucrats, added Suranjit, also the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the law ministry.
He urged the government to enact the proposed vested property return (amendment) bill 2010 in the current session of parliament.
The veteran AL leader made the remarks yesterday at a roundtable. Arpito Sampatti Ain Pratirodh Andolan, Sammilita Samajik Andolan, Nijera Kori and ALRD, Bangladesh Hindu-Bouddha-Christian Oikkya Parishad, BLAST and HDRC organised it.
Lawmaker Rashed Khan Menon said the government is delaying in enacting this act fearing that it would lose votes from the Muslims.
The minorities and the progressive people will drop their support from the government if it fails to implement its election pledges of enacting the act, said Sultana Kamal, former adviser to a caretaker government.
AFM Mozzamel Haque, chairman of parliamentary standing committee on the land ministry, assured of reviewing the proposed vested property return (amendment) bill 2010 before placing it in parliament.
Prof Ajoy Roy said that the government should declare that lands and properties, which had been grabbed after March 23, 1974, would be returned to their owners.
Arpito Sampatti Ain Protirodh Andolon General Secretary Subrata Chowdhury placed a seven-point demand, including a gazette on the list of all properties as vested property till March 23, 1974, enacting a law for protection of inheritance of co-sharers in absence of original inheritors.
Cultural activist Kamal Lohani, columnist Syed Abul Maksud, Prof Mesbah Kamal, Barrister Sara Hossain, Hindu community leader advocate Rana Das Gupta, also spoke at the meeting chaired by freedom fighter CR Dutt.
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