Land Minister Mizanur Rahman Minu on Wednesday said the government is set to take initiatives to rehabilitate destitute homeless people, with the process of allocating khas land for this purpose currently underway.
He said genuinely landless individuals will be allotted khas land after verification and scrutiny, in accordance with the Khas Land Management and Allocation Policy, upon submission of applications.The minister made the remarks in response to a question from Chattogram-12 lawmaker Mohammad Enamul Hoque during the 14th day of the first session of the 13th National Parliament in the morning.
Responding to a separate question from Dhaka-18 lawmaker S M Jahangir Hossain, the minister said there is no scope for allocating non-agricultural khas land within Dhaka city corporation areas.
The MP had sought information on the extent of khas land in the Dhaka-18 constituency, its current use, whether any portions had been encroached upon, and whether any landless people had been rehabilitated through khas land allocation. He also asked whether the government had plans to recover occupied khas land and use it for revenue generation, and if so, the timeline for implementation.
In reply, the Land Minister said the total amount of khas land in Dhaka-18 constituency stands at 929.9140 acres. He said river-classified land is being used as rivers, canal-classified land as canals, and road- and market-classified land as roads and marketplaces. In addition, land classified as drains, ponds and other categories remains vacant, as city records show these khas lands as unencumbered and not under possession.
He further informed Parliament that some properties genuinely under government control were mistakenly recorded as khas land in city survey khatians, resulting in ongoing civil litigation over such plots.
The minister added that all khas land in Dhaka city has been identified as non-agricultural. He said these lands cannot be allocated for the rehabilitation of landless people. Recovered government khas land will instead be used for revenue collection in line with government directives.
