Can ruling party affiliates just grab government land?

It is no secret that land-grabbing is continuing unabated in all corners of the country. Over the last few years, we have seen multiple instances including that of local influentials forcefully evicting minority communities from their land, neighbours taking advantage of the vulnerable and pushing into their property, and even rivers being filled up and grabbed by opportunists. In almost all of the cases, the local administration and other bodies in charge of stopping these crimes have either looked the other way, or seemed completely oblivious to what was happening.

But how can you be so oblivious as to not notice a five-storey building being constructed on government-owned land?

Yet, that is exactly what happened in Patuakhali's Rangabali upazila, where a small piece of land owned by the Water Development Board (WDB), next to a flood-control embankment at Charmontaj Bazar area, is being built on for over a year now. The space in that area had already been limited, and has now shrunk further due to the construction, creating huge problems for commuters in that bustling locality.

Predictably, the joint owners of said building are affiliated with the ruling party – one owner, Wahid Khan Raj, is deputy public education affairs secretary of the central committee of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), while the other, Shahidul Khan, is president of the Charmontaj Union unit of Swechchhasebak League. However, these gentlemen, despite their political associations, seem completely unaware of how the laws of a country work, and seem to be under the impression that they are the legal owners of this government land.

What is more surprising is their claim of "legally" buying the land from a civilian, who reportedly has no associations with WDB, the local administration, or any section of the government. But perhaps the most shocking of all revelations are statements from a WDB official and the local administration saying how they were not "aware" of this grabbing of government land, and that "actions" and "measures" will be taken after inquiry. As if that is supposed to reassure us.

Is it believable that two storeys of a building can be constructed on government land by men with political affiliations – who dubiously "buy" it from a civilian – with no one in local government being aware that this was taking place? And if it is possible to do, right under the noses of state officials, what does that say about the latter's ability to carry out their responsibilities?

This latest incident is a perfect example of the audacity of land-grabbers, who are confident of being able to carry out their crimes with impunity, and may even expect the support of local administration in doing so because of their political affiliations. Will they continue to be proved right? Or will the relevant actors and law enforcement officials finally decide to do something about these crimes?