The New Nation - Internet Edition

Rafiqul Islam Azad

The government is contemplating to bring amendment to the Vested Property Return Act to resolve the complexity and uncertainty centering country's vested property.

Sources in the Ministry of Land said, a draft proposal of the amendment has already been prepared and it would be finalised at the cabinet meeting within next month.

"If the cabinet meeting approves the proposed amendment the long awaited complexities over the vested land will be resolved," said a Land Ministry official.

According to him, the proposed amendment titled Vested Property (Amendment) Act-2009 will replace section 9(6), rule 16 of the existing law.

Under the section, no property, except those were not listed in the return list, will be treated as vested property. The government will have no interest, ownership or responsibility to the vested property, he said.

Land Ministry sources said that the draft proposal provided the option that a vested property owner will be able to apply to the deputy commissioner (DC) concerned with proper documents claiming his/her ownership of the land within 180 days after publication of the gazette of the Act.

Besides, the sources said, under sub-section 7, if any land was included in the vested property return list mistakenly, the owner would be able to apply to a committee comprising local MP, upazila chairman and UNO within 60 days after publication of the gazette.

After scrutiny by the committee, district committee headed by the DC will re-examine the appeals and forward them to the central committee headed by a joint secretary for final report. Later these appeals will be resolved after hearing before the trial Courts, sources said.

Minister for Land Rezaul Karim Hira told reporters that the difficulty over the vested return property would be resolved by December next as the Government is going to bring amendment to the law.

A lot of disputes were created, scores of cases were filed, attacks, counter-attacks and bloody clashes had taken place centering grabbing the vested property in the country after independence in 1971. But the sensitive issue has not been resolved as the matter was dealt politically.

Land Ministry sources said of the 6,50,000 acres of vested property, about 1,97,000 acres remain under the possession of the government while 4,50,000 acres were grabbed by the vested quarter through forged documents.

Sources said, after the recovery, the vested land would be distributed among the landless people.