Land zoning act yet to take shape
Country losing multicrop farmlands in absence
of legal deterrent
ANISUR RAHMAN KHAN
Despite initiatives taken seven years ago, the Agricultural Land Protection and Land Zoning Act 2010 is yet to see the light of day. The main objective of the proposed law is to ban the construction of houses and industrial units on farmlands.
According to land ministry sources, it would take another year to place the proposed law in Parliament for legislation.
In the absence of any legal deterrent, the country is losing valuable and finite multicrop farmland. This poses a threat to the nations food security. A section of developers are indiscriminately filling up thousands of acres of multicrop farmlands across the country.
Most of the multicrop farmlands adjacent to different cities and district towns like Dhaka, Narayanganj, Munshiganj, Gazipur, Narsingdi, Mymensingh, Chittagong, Sylhet, Rajshahi, Bogra, Barisal, Comilla, Khulna, Tangail and Manikganj are being filled up with sand to make room for housing projects and industrial units by a section of unscrupulous people.
Agriculture ministry sources said the country was losing 0.66 per cent of its valuable farmlands every year owing to the construction of houses and industrial units.
According to the Bureau of Statistics (20072008), the country has only 77.65 crore hectare of farmlands.
The land ministry has already finalised a draft of the Act, which was to be submitted before the Cabinet after the completion of the zoning of land in 40 districts. The ministry has, in fact, finished the zoning of land in those districts already.
The draft of the new law is almost ready. It is now being studied by a committee led by the land reforms board chairman, Abual Hossain, additional secretary to the land ministry, told The Independent yesterday.
He said the committee would submit its final report on the draft law by July. The draft law will be forwarded to the law ministry for
vetting, he added. The additional secretary said many provisions had been proposed in the draft Act. Housing and industrial units would not be allowed on any arable land yielding three crops, two crops or even a single crop. The violators would face both imprisonment and fine, he added.
If anybody wanted to raise structures outside the demarcated zones, they would have to take permission from the appropriate authority, he noted.
A committee would be formed in this regard. It would be headed by the upazila nirbahi officer, who would be responsible for giving the permission. The local MP would be the adviser of the committee, Hossain said.
He also said after the law was enacted, no one would be able to construct anything on cultivable land at their will. It would help save our limited farmlands from the clutch of greedy developers and industrialists, he added.
