Cabinet nods draft of Land Crime Prevention and Remedy Act, 2023
Staff Reporter :
The Cabinet on Monday approved in principle the draft of the ‘Land Crime Prevention and Remedy Bill, 2023’ to curb land-related forgeries and offences.
The approval was given at the regular weekly Cabinet meeting held with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair at her Tejgaon office in Dhaka.
The meeting has also cleared drafts of three more laws – the ‘Sand Quarry (Balumahal) and Soil Management (Amendment) Bill, 2023’, ‘Bangladesh Homeopathic Medical Education Bill, 2023’ and ‘Lakkhipur Science and Technology University Bill, 2023’.
In the meeting drafts of two policies – the Agriculture and Food-processing Industry Development Policy, 2023 and the National Library Policy, 2023 were also cleared.
While briefing the media at Bangladesh Secretariat regarding the Land Crime Prevention and Remedy Bill, Cabinet Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain said, “The land-related offences were defined and punitive provisions for these were kept in it so that the citizens can uninterruptedly enjoy the rights including possession on their own lands.”
He said the land-related forgeries were specified and steps were taken to prevent, curb the crimes related to public and private lands as well as to ensure remedy to these offences.
“A scope was kept in the proposed law for the disposal of land-related disputes through arbitration alongside the court,” the Cabinet Secretary said, adding that the maximum punishment for land forgery would be seven-year imprisonment, while the minimum is a two-year jail.
In the draft of Sand Quarry (Balumahal) and Soil Management (Amendment) Act, 2023, some changes were brought to
the existing act of 2010 with a view to imposing new restrictions in defining sand quarries and extraction of sand and soil.
Mahbub Hossain said, “Sand or soil can’t be extracted from any cropland or the places where such extraction will create the threat to destroying the navigability of BIWTA routes.”
He said now only the hydrographic survey of BIWTA is considered in defining sand quarries. But if any, the survey of the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) will have to be considered in this regard as per the draft law.
The topsoil can’t be damaged also in private lands. If there is a possibility of destroying cropland or its topsoil, sand and soil can’t be extracted, he added.
Instruments of extracting sand and soil can be seized lawfully, he said adding the leaseholder will have to bear the compensation, if any road or establishment is damaged due to sand transport. The draft of Agriculture and Food-processing Industry Development Policy 2023 was prepared putting importance on the thriving agro-processing and food-processing industry.
In this context, the Prime Minister directed the authorities concerned to give more focus on the OIC countries while exploring new markets for the agro-processing and food-processing goods of Bangladesh. The National Library Policy 2023 kept a new provision to allow the use of IT in libraries.
The Cabinet cleared the drafts of an agreement to be signed between Bangladesh and Hong Kong for avoiding double taxation on income and preventing tax evasion; an agreement between the government of Bangladesh and the government of Canada on air transport; and the draft of BIMSTEC Charter.
It also approved the ratificationof the Security Cooperation Agreement between the government of Saudi Arabia and the government of Bangladesh; and Agreement on the Movement of Traffic-in-Transit and Protocol to the Agreement on the Movement of Traffic-in-Transit between Bangladesh and Bhutan.
