Discriminatory land policy

The keynote paper 'Political Economy of the Agrarian and Land Reforms in Bangladesh: New Horizon of Development' by Dr. Abul Barakat of the department of economics of Dhaka University says that the number of landless families has increased three-folds in the last five decades. But notably if the government takes up the policy of distributing the khas land (government land) among the landless people then every family would get more than one acre land.

The seminar organised by Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) further came up with hard facts concerning the creation of a dual-economy in the country in which one million powerful people represent one economy and the rest of 139 million represent the other. The speakers made a clear reference to the faulty development programmes undertaken so far resulting in for the creation of the glaring disparity.

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Faulty land distribution system has been exploited by vested quarters to grab khas land since the independence of the country. The complicated and ancient record-keeping system also makes it easy for the unscrupulous people to cheat the poor and the ignorant in land purchase deals. And there are corrupt staff in the relevant offices to help the powerful people in robbing the poor of their land.

We strongly feel the land policy of the country has to be modernised and made people-friendly so that we can address poverty with due seriousness. Before the rest of the khas land goes to the grabbers through illegal means, policy planners should consider the proposal of distributing it among the marginalised poor in society. Simultaneously, we would urge the government to take steps to recover the expropriated khas land from the grabbers however powerful they may be.