New land offices at CHT

the offices should focus on settling disputes in cooperation with local administrative bodies

The government is going to set up 10 land offices headed by assistant commissioners of land in order to settle land disputes in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. This is a commendable initiative aiming at settling long standing disputes while making the settling procedure faster. In particular, setting up new offices in the hill tracts appears to be a very strategic drive since the law on the CHT Land Dispute Resolution Commission 2016 was amended recently. Also, it has been 19 years after the peace agreement between the then Shanti Bahini and at that time’s Awami League government was signed. The authorities since then have not been able to resolve land disputes in the region. Expectedly, the new offices will work hard to deal with the age-old grievances of existing hilly land disputes. 
The land ministry, too, has prepared a proposal in this regard to be placed at the next meeting of the secretaries’ committee on administrative improvement affairs, to be held soon. We would like to stress on two particular issues concerning land related disputes – first, the offices should focus on settling disputes in cooperation with local administrative bodies. And second, from a more tech-savvy perspective, record keeping of lands to operational management systems will have to be completely digitised.
There is no alternative system to records in proper land management other than digitisation. So far, the system has reportedly recorded land in 55 districts in Bangladesh. Nearly four million fifty eight lakh forty three thousand four hounded and four pieces of land have been digitally recorded. However, a particular syndicate has often believed to have interfered to prevent our land offices from being digitised. The syndicate has also allegedly indulged in huge corruption for demarcating, grabbing and selling of lands illegally, often through forged land documents in exchange of bribes. We expect the new offices to be free of all such menaces. The new offices should specifically aim at checking the correct ownership of a property since it is a laborious task in Bangladesh.       
Lastly, we expect the appointment of assistant commissioners of the new offices to be based on merit and honesty. Showing preferential treatment or political prejudice would only hamper the objectives of the new land offices.    

 

New land offices at CHT

the offices should focus on settling disputes in cooperation with local administrative bodies

The government is going to set up 10 land offices headed by assistant commissioners of land in order to settle land disputes in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. This is a commendable initiative aiming at settling long standing disputes while making the settling procedure faster. In particular, setting up new offices in the hill tracts appears to be a very strategic drive since the law on the CHT Land Dispute Resolution Commission 2016 was amended recently. Also, it has been 19 years after the peace agreement between the then Shanti Bahini and at that times Awami League government was signed. The authorities since then have not been able to resolve land disputes in the region. Expectedly, the new offices will work hard to deal with the age-old grievances of existing hilly land disputes. The land ministry, too, has prepared a proposal in this regard to be placed at the next meeting of the secretaries committee on administrative improvement affairs, to be held soon. We would like to stress on two particular issues concerning land related disputes first, the offices should focus on settling disputes in cooperation with local administrative bodies. And second, from a more tech-savvy perspective, record keeping of lands to operational management systems will have to be completely digitised. There is no alternative system to records in proper land management other than digitisation. So far, the system has reportedly recorded land in 55 districts in Bangladesh. Nearly four million fifty eight lakh forty three thousand four hounded and four pieces of land have been digitally recorded. However, a particular syndicate has often believed to have interfered to prevent our land offices from being digitised. The syndicate has also allegedly indulged in huge corruption for demarcating, grabbing and selling of lands illegally, often through forged land documents in exchange of bribes. We expect the new offices to be free of all such menaces. The new offices should specifically aim at checking the correct ownership of a property since it is a laborious task in Bangladesh. Lastly, we expect the appointment of assistant commissioners of the new offices to be based on merit and honesty. Showing preferential treatment or politicalprejudice would only hamper the objectives of the new land offices.