The government is making laws to prevent crimes related to land. Already, 22 types of crimes related to land have been identified and draft laws have been published on the website.
The draft law titled 'Prevention and Remedies of Land Crimes Act, 2021' includes creating fake documents from other's land owners as well as deeding more than the ownership, recording additional land, selling it secretly even after prior sale or transfer, entering into an agreement to resell the earnest money. Or crimes such as making donations by misrepresentation have been highlighted in that draft.
Apart from this, the crime of deceiving the co-heirs and deeding more land than one's share in one's name has also been highlighted in that draft.
On Saturday, the preliminary draft of the proposed law (Bill) was posted on the website of the Ministry of Lands for public opinion (https://minland.gov.bd/) published by the Ministry of Lands.
Public relations officer of the ministry Syed Md. Abdullah Al Nahyan told a media outlet that the draft bill will be sent to the Cabinet Department after taking opinions. If approved there, steps will be taken to present it in the form of a bill in Parliament.
Earlier, at the DC Conference on Thursday (January 20), Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury said that the draft of 'Land Crime Prevention and Remedies Act, 2021' has been prepared by bringing illegal land occupation under criminal offence. This law will also play an effective role in preventing land robbery. At the same time, this law will play a role in preventing illegal acquisition or attempted acquisition of land or loss of land by fraud or deception of a land greedy person through fraud or deception and in collusion with others with documents or without any documents.
On that day, he also said that power of attorney will be completely stopped in the case of land. He emphasized on prevention of fraud, fraud and corruption through the name of Ammokta. The minister said that the issue of abolishing power of attorney system in land acquisition case (LA case) is under consideration. There is widespread corruption through power of attorney during the acquisition process and payment of compensation. Especially the common people in the rural areas are constantly being cheated and harassed by dishonest people through it. Therefore, except in special cases, termination of power of attorney is generally considered in LA cases.
The 22 offenses identified in the draft are given below-
1. Forged documents to become the owner of other's land.
2. Deed of additional land of ownership.
3. Writing off excess land owned.
4. Sale of land by concealment of prior sale or transfer.
5. Agreement to resell earnest money.
6. Making donations etc. by misrepresentation.
7. Deceiving the co-heirs and deeding more land in one's name than one's share.
8. Selling more land than one's share by cheating co-heirs.
9. illegal possession
10. Forcible possession of land of co-heirs.
11. Illegal cutting of soil, sand mining etc.
12. Create a flood.
13. Cutting of topsoil without permission.
14. Registration of deeds at additional value for the purpose of increasing the value of the land before acquisition.
15. Acquisition of land for public use, religious or charitable institutions.
16. Settlement at the foot of hills or hills without permission.
17. Offenses related to transfer of land, flats etc. by developers in housing sector.
18. Illegal occupation of land etc. of government, private, autonomous or statutory bodies.
19. Change in class of rivers, haors, beels and other wetlands.
20. Exercising muscle power to take illegal possession and maintain possession.
21. Damage to adjacent land owner's land.
22. Aiding or abetting the commission of crime etc.
