Eight organisations have appealed to the government not to set up any cantonments or other installations on agricultural and forest land. They say that a move is underway to allocate about 50 thousand acres of land for army installations in various places around the country. This will entail evicting many settlements and destroying the natural environment.
A press conference was held at the Reporters Unity auditorium yesterday by these eight organisations which work with human rights, good governance and development. It was said that settlements, agricultural land, forests and water bodies were unlawfully being taken over one after the other by businesses, factories, urbanisation, housing projects and construction of cantonments.
The press conference was jointly organised by the Association for Land Reform and Development (ALRD), Ain O Salish Kendra, Bangladesh Legal Aid Services Trust (BLAST), Adivasi Forum, Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), Nijera Kori, Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan, and Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).
Sultana Kamal, executive director of Ain O Salish Kendra, said, “My regret is there is no opportunity to take recourse for justice in this country. How can we take pride in democracy when there is not an iota of justice anywhere? And yet we talk about the spirit of the liberation war.”
Sultana Kamal said that a large portion of the city was under the army’s control. Their area was gradually expanding. And the state was supporting them. Addressing the country, she said, “If you cannot take action against such wrongdoings, then you don’t have the moral right to take responsibility of the country.”
Syeda Rizwana Hasan began the press conference by reading out a brief on investigations into land acquisition in seven areas of the country. She said that a move is on to allocate land to the army which included 1800 acres in Ramu, Cox’s Bazar; 997 acres in Ruma, Bandarban; 1408 acres in Charmohar, Pabna; and about 4500 acres in Hatia, Noakhali and Sandwip, Chittagong. About 7000 persons will be evicted from agricultural land and settlements in these areas.
Rizwana Hasan said that there is a move to unlawfully occupy 1200 acres of agricultural land in Shailat and adjacent areas in Sripur upazila, Gazipur, by four companies of a single owner. The company’s people are filling the pond and land of a school there as well as 800 bighas of land of the hapless village people.
Rahima Khatun, a resident of Carring Char in Dakkhin Hatiya, Noakhali, was present at the press conference. She said, “I have seen various robbers come to Carring Char over the years. They have raped girls in front of their mothers, wives in front of their husbands.” They have survived through all this. She said, “Then CLP (Char Livelihood Project) came, measured our land and recorded it for us. We thought we had found peace at last. Then in 2011 the army came to the area. They said they had come to establish peace, but soon they began to occupy our land.
They claimed to have leased the land from the government.”
Abdur Rahim from Rupganj in Narayanganj said, “The army took over 40 villages of two of our unions and is making a housing project, Jalshiri, over there. We took up a movement in 2010 to save this land. We had clashes with the army. We found no help, no justice. There are stark sandy expanses in place of the fertile agricultural land.”
Ifterkharuzzaman, executive director of TIB, said, “The main problem is that we have no defence policy. We have handed Aladdin’s lamp over to the army. They get what they want.”
He said, “The government doesn’t want to give much allocation to health and education, the most important sectors for the country. Yet when it comes to the defence budget, their purse strings are open. There is no scope to question this.”
“There certainly is need to set up cantonments and to modernise the army in the interests of national security, but the question is whether they are working for their own security or that of the country,” he said.
Khushi Kabir, head of Nijera Kori, said, “Members of the army killed two former presidents of the country. They repeatedly slay democracy. And in the name of protecting us, they are snatching away the people’s land, forests and water bodies.”
Speaking on behalf of BLAST, Sara Hossain said, “The army may have occupied the land, but the local police and administration have assisted them.” She addressed the media, saying, “When the sufferers were speaking, most of the TV cameras were shut.” She called upon the media to give more coverage to the sufferers.
When contacted in this regard, no one of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) was willing to speak.
Source: Prothom Alo
