Land grabbing protested

19 November 2011, 18:00 PM

Staff Correspondent

Kayetpara and Rupganj Bhumi Rakkha Sangram Committee forms a human chain in front of Jatiya Press Club in the city yesterday demanding cancellation of the Ashiyan Shital Chhaya Project in Rupganj of Narayanganj.Photo: STAR

Locals of Rupganj and Kayetpara unions of Narayanganj yesterday staged a demonstration in front of the National Press Club protesting alleged land grabbing by a land developer company. They alleged at a human chain that Ashiyan City, a land developer, was either forcibly purchasing or grabbing their wetlands and homesteads for the company's Shitalchhaya Prokalpa in Mushundi, Rupganj and Naora area. The protesters demanded that the government stop the project and give back the land to their owners. The company purchased 200 bighas of land from the farmers but filled up over 7 to 8 hundred bighas of land with sand during the rainy season, said Mohammad Abdur Rafiq, who is the convener of Kayetpara and Rupganj Bhumi Raksha Sangram Committee, an alliance of victimised farmers to protect their land, over phone. “We couldn't figure out the extent of grabbed wetlands as they were under water during the season. As the dry season came and land appeared, we discovered that a huge portion of our farm land had been grabbed,” he said. Some middlemen registered the land of farmers through using false documents and took them to the developing company's office at Gulshan to sell the land, he added. He said some local goons led by Mosharraf Hossain, a commissioner of ward no-1 of Kayetpara union, hired by the company were threatening them as they had formed the committee to protest the grabbing. Landowners of Mushundi and Rupganj filed about 30 general diaries (GD) with Rupganj Police Station against the grabbers but the victims of Naora did not file a GD because of fear of the local goons, he alleged. Contacted, Assistant Manager, Media and Communication, of Ashiyan City Shafiqul Islam said the company had purchased around 2000 bighas of land for its housing project. About the allegations of purchasing land with fake documents, he said the firm always checked documents before purchasing land to avert legal complexities. He claimed the people, who had staged demonstration, had been hired by a vested quarter. Shafiq also claimed no one had lodged any complaint against the company with any police station.