Various business establishments have been set up by illegally occupying the land of the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) at Jibannagar upazila of Chuadanga district. A group of influential is collecting huge amount of money by renting these business establishments.
Located on the west side of the bus stand in Jibannagar municipal town, the old rest house of the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) is known as old post bungalow near Jibannagar upazila.
The Department of Roads and Highways has a large amount of own property next to the Jibannagar bus stand including this post bungalow. But these properties are being illegally occupied with the connivance of some dishonest officials and employees of the Roads and Highways Department.
It has been seen on the spot that the influential have started occupying the valuable lands of the Roads and Highways Department of Jibannagar Upazila. After occupying these lands, they are building businesses by constructing several building there. Some are running their own business while others have rented out their business to others on a monthly basis. Again, some people are selling the occupied land and taking huge amount of money.
Islam Hossain, a fruit trader who rented the shop, said he is giving monthly rent to Bazlu Miah, the owner of Bazlu Machinery. For this he has to pay 3 thousand Tk per month. He added that Bazlu Mia has three shops in the place.
Some traders, who did not want to be named, said that Bazlu Mia, the occupier of government land, was not alone, but several persons including Lutfar, Hussain, Sadeq, Delwar and Rafiq, an employee of Roads and Highways Department, had also occupied the land and built shops and rented them out.
There is a competition for illegal possession of huge amount of property on both sides of Jibannagar-Duttnagar road and Jibannagar Hospital road in the municipal city.
The traders claimed that the old post bungalow of the Roads and Highways Department was occupied by the occupiers but no action was taken by the concerned department. That is the reason why the group of influential are occupying the land worth crores of taka of the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) and building shops on it and collecting rent of lakhs of taka. But no one dares to open his mouth for fear of influential occupiers.
Nazrul Islam, executive engineer of the Chuadanga Roads and Highways Department, said, "I have already taken initiative to vacate the RHD land. But I did not release it due to humanitarian reasons and recommendations from different places. Steps will be taken very soon to evict the illegal occupants of the rest house and the occupants of the rest house will be vacated.”
Jibannagar Upazila Nirbahi Officer Ariful Islam said that no one can illegally occupy and sell the land of Roads and Highways Department. The road department can evict all the illegal occupiers whenever it wants.
