PM vows corruption-free land mgt

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Tuesday inaugurated a three-day nationwide Land Service Fair, calling for a complete overhaul of the country’s land management system and pledging to end the long-standing cycle of corruption, harassment, and bureaucratic delays that have plagued ordinary citizens for decades.

“Providing services is not an act of charity toward the people; rather ensuring public services is the responsibility of the government,” Rahman said at the opening ceremony of “Land Service Fair-2026” at Bhumi Bhaban in Dhaka’s Tejgaon area.

The Prime Minister stressed that transparent, accountable, and people-friendly land management is indispensable for building a just and modern state — and outlined his government’s ambition to create a technology-driven, corruption-free system that would bring services directly to citizens’ doorsteps.

Rahman painted a stark picture of the growing complexities surrounding land ownership in Bangladesh.

A single plot of land that may have had one owner a century ago could now have a hundred or more, he noted, dramatically increasing the administrative burden on land offices and the legal burden on ordinary families.

“As ownership and shared ownership of land have increased, naturally the responsibilities of land officials in maintaining proper records have also increased,” he said.

More than 47 lakh civil and criminal cases are currently pending in courts across the country, with land-related disputes accounting for the majority, Rahman disclosed.

He called their swift resolution one of the government’s top priorities.

The Prime Minister also highlighted the human cost of these disputes, saying land conflicts destroy peace within families and create obstacles to national development — consequences that go far beyond the courtroom.

Central to the government’s strategy is digitisation.

Rahman said almost all services of the land administration are being brought under digital platforms, with a goal of making processes easier, faster, and more effective.

“Our goal is to build a land management system where people no longer have to run from office to office or face corruption and harassment to receive land services,” he said.

Online services, he argued, would not only reduce public suffering but also shrink the influence of middlemen — a persistent source of exploitation in land offices across the country.

The Ministry of Land is simultaneously working to prepare accurate land records through advanced technology-based surveys, he added.

Alongside digital reform, Rahman urged greater use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms — including village courts, conciliation, mediation, and arbitration — to ease the backlog in formal courts and resolve disputes more humanely.

Invoking Albert Einstein, he said: “Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.”

Applying that principle to land disputes, he argued that ADR mechanisms could both reduce the case backlog and prevent conflicts from hardening into long-term hostility between neighbours and relatives.

The Prime Minister framed the fair as a concrete delivery on a pre-election commitment.

“We mentioned in our 31-point reform outline announced years before the national election and in our latest election manifesto that we will organize land service fairs across the country,” he said.

“Through this three-day nationwide land fair, the government has fulfilled another election pledge.”

The fair offers a range of services under one roof: e-mutation applications, online land development tax payments, record corrections, khatian collection, and resolution of land-related complaints — services spread across multiple offices that citizens previously had to chase individually.

Rahman said his government would not limit accountability to land management alone.

“The people of the country, after enduring more than one and a half decades of fascist rule and exploitation, now want to see their rights reflected in the state and politics,” he said.

“From the very first week of taking office, the present government has focused on gradually implementing every point of the election manifesto and the July Charter.”

Land Minister Md Mizanur Rahman Minu presided over the inaugural ceremony. State Minister for Land Mir Mohammed Helal Uddin and Land Secretary ASM Saleh Ahmed also addressed the gathering.

Several cabinet members attended, including ministers for Social Welfare, Agriculture, Law, Posts and Telecommunications, and Civil Aviation and Tourism, along with members of parliament and senior government officials.