The parliamentary standing committee on land ministry in a meeting yesterday discussed the reports submitted by Dhaka Forest Division, Board of Land Reforms and Savar land office, accusing them of grabbing forest and public lands as well as those under the ward of the court , sources said.

According to reports, the navy housing society glommed 6.45 acres of forestland in Savar, where, the local assistant land commissioner said, the society is in possession of 39.58 acres of land.

The Board of Land Reforms in its report alleged realtor Amin Mohammad Foundation felled some 500 trees before seizing about 50 acres of land that has been a ward of the court in Savar. The foundation reportedly also grabbed 20.57 acres of public land in Savar and 96 acres of forestland in Dhaka district.

The Forest Division report accused Partex Real Estate Ltd owned by ruling BNP lawmaker MA Hashem of grabbing 38.70 acres and Jamuna Group of 4.40 acres of forestland.

Of the rest of the organisations, Rahat Real Estate reportedly glommed 29.14 acres, Chhayakunja 5.17 acres and Savar Model Town 7.61 acres of forestland.

Among the individual encroachers, former Birulia Union Parishad chairman Abdus Sattar was accused of grabbing 23 acres, Siraj Doctor 4.93 acres, Julmat Ali 3.10 acres, Jaman Uddin 3 acres and Alauddin 4.67 acres of forestland.

On another issue, the Jatiya Sangsad (JS) body yesterday asked the city planners, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), to file cases against all developers conducting construction or housing work without their permission.

CNG STATION PLOTS

The members of the parliamentary committee at yesterday's meeting at the JS Bhaban expressed their dissatisfaction with the communications ministry for violating the land rules in allocating plots for building CNG stations.

The land laws do not provide the communications ministry with any authority to lease out public land, the committee observed. "The communications ministry should have handed over the lands to the land ministry for allocation to install CNG stations, for the land ministry holds all authority to do that," committee chairman Mahbubur Rahman told reporters after the meeting.

The committee yesterday formed a sub-committee to examine the existing laws on land allocation and also to identify the area of lands leased out by the communications ministry for CNG stations.