Desk Report: The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has identified seven private picnic spots and resorts which were built grabbing forest land in Gazipur in collusion with dishonest forest officials, reports Daily Sun. A three-member ACC enquiry team, led by its director Sayed Iqbal Hossain, found that the seven resorts and picnic spots were built occupying forest land. The seven resorts and picnic spots are Shohag Palli Resort Zone, Shilpi Kunja Picnic Spot, Rangamati Water Front, Aranyak Bungalow Bari, ACI Bungalow Bari, Mamataj Picnic Spot and Nuhash Polli. The ACC enquiry team found that Shilpi Kunja Picnic Spot grabbed 0.20 acres land of the forest department of government, Shohag Palli Resort Zone occupied 2.40 acres, Rangamati Water Front grabbed one acre, Aranyak Bungalow Bari grabbed 0.22 acres, ACI Bungalow Bari grabbed 0.30 acres, Mamataj Picnic Spot occupied 0.41 acre and Nuhash Polli grabbed 0.60 acres of the forest land.
ACC has already sent notice to the authorities of the private resorts and picnic spots except for Nuhash Polli, asking them to provide necessary documents over the seven spots, said ACC officials, adding that a notice will also be issued to Nuhash Polli soon.
The ACC officials said the private resorts and picnic spots have been using the land since early 90s but land officials had been lax in recovering the lands.
The land officials will be notified in this regard to explain why they did not take necessary initiatives over a long period of time, to retrieve the government land.
Shilpi Kunjo Picnic Spot owner Khorshed Alam Babul said they already submitted necessary documents to ACC.
He further said they will leave the government land if it is proved in the ACC investigation that they had government land in their possession.
Shohag Palli Resort Zone general manager Shahid Ahmed said they have received a notice and they are trying to solve the issue in a legal way.
Rangamati Water Front assistant general manager Abdur Rahim said they are working to respond to the ACC notice.
Meher Afroz Shaon, one of the owners of Nuhash Polli, said she came to know early of this year that a portion of government land formed a part of a pond inside Nuhash Polli while another portion was a part of a mango garden.
Shaon, also wife of late popular writer Humayun Ahmed, said she had no objection to leaving the land used in making the pond but she wants to take care of the other portion used in mango garden in the front side of Nuhash Polli.
Shaon said that they would like to look after the part of land without ownership as the mango garden was made by Humayun Ahmed.
Meanwhile, the ACI Bungalow Bari left their possession of the government land two month ago after the ACC had issued a notice to them, said ACC officials.
Asked, Dhaka divisional forest officer Jahir Uddin Akan said they are continuing drives to free the government land from grabbers.
“We’ll take necessary steps following the ACC enquiry report regarding the forest land grabbing, he added.
Earlier, ACC got allegations that a good number of businesspeople, politicians, former bureaucrats and showbiz stars had built resorts, picnic spots, rest houses and party centres on the outskirts of Dhaka and adjacent districts grabbing forest land.
Following the allegation, in September 2017, ACC started an enquiry to find out the sources of investment and other irregularities of the private resorts and picnic spots owners in Dhaka and adjacent districts including Gazipur, Manikganj, Narsingdi and Narayanganj.
ACC collected data from the forest department and local administrations for screening the land ownership of the private resorts.
After scrutinising documents of Gazipur and Narayanganj, they found the seven resorts but they found no such grabbing incidents in Narayanganj, the ACC officials said.