Turning hill into home: Don’t worry about the law!

The hilly areas of Chhinnomul Bazar in Chattogram city's Arefin Nagar, a housing project, owned by Ali Nagar Samabay Samity, is secured by an iron gate under the watchful eyes of guards. According to locals, one Yasin of Chhinnomul, the samity's president, is supervising the project.

What's strange is that this Yasin is nowhere to be found.

His or the samity's contact number has not been made available anywhere, with the samity's local agents doing all the dealings. His offers, however, are very much there.

A buyer need not know the owner or how the hill will be flattened.

There is no paperwork showing who the previous land owner was. New ownership will be offered for Tk 7 to 12 lakh per plot.

And the cherry on top is that fighting over ownership in court is also included in the package.

It's not just Yasin who's doing this there. Signboards bearing names of housing projects and individuals are hung everywhere one's eyes may wander.

In fact, the whole area surrounding Bayezid Bostami-Faujdarhat Link Road has seen a surge in such projects in recent years.

The only problem is that these are hill areas, where constructing such structures is completely illegal without the right permits in the first place.

While talking to this correspondent, Mofidul Alam, director (Chattogram division) of Department of Environment (DoE), informed that Arefin Nagar and its surrounding area is listed as khas land.

He said he has visited the site after learning about how hills are being cut there. Authorities have agreed to strengthen monitoring activities in a meeting presided over by the divisional commissioner on February 17.

District Commissioner (DC) Mohammed Mominur Rahaman, however, said he was not aware of any housing project in the area. Had there been any such incidents, they would have taken action.

Authorities' lack of coordination and response to the issues, and subsequent legal battles make grabbing land pretty easy. While officials mull over these issues, construction goes on in full swing.

DoE officials have said that in most cases, Chattogram Development Authority allows construction on condition of obtaining a "no objection certificate" (NOC) from DoE.

But building owners don't seem to worry about that, and no amount of fines is deterring hill cutting and land grabbing.

DoE officials last year fined around 30 persons in Nasirabad area for razing Nagin Pahar and constructing residential buildings and tin-shed houses under the "Green Valley Housing" project.

But this action had no effect on projects in Arefin Nagar -- or the numerous other projects in Jungle Salimpur of Sitakunda, different parts of Bayezid Bostami, Lalkhan Bazar, South Khulshi, Nasirabad, Foy's Lake, and Akbarshah, for that matter.

Talking to The Daily Star, Assistant Commissioner (AC) Ashraful Alam of Sitakunda Land Office said, "Some pieces of land were grabbed in Jungle Salimpur area, and the matter is now pending in court. We have nothing to do about right now."

According to two recent studies conducted by Chittagong University and Bangladesh Agricultural University, Chattogram had around 200 large and small hills near the city and its adjacent areas. Over the last two decades, half of them have been razed for residential and commercial purposes.