They observed that amendment should be brought to the Government Land and Building Recovery of Possession Ordinance 1970 and Bangladesh Penal Code (BPC) for bringing dynamism in the eviction drive.

They also sought policy guidelines for eviction drive against the encroachers of the private lands as there is no law in this regard.

The recommendations were placed before the third meeting of the national executive committee on monitoring of allegations and investigation against land occupants yesterday.

Cabinet Secretary Dr Sadat Hossain presided over the meeting at the cabinet division.

"The government has identified illegal land occupation as a national crisis, and we have to address it," Sadat Hossain said after the meeting.

He, however, said the problem will not be solved overnight, it will take a lot of time.

The next meeting of the committee, formed in February this year, will review the recommendations sent by the local administrations.

The meeting expressed satisfaction over the activities of the local committees in this regard.

Secretaries of land, environment, law, works and information were present at the meeting.