Land
law to be simplified: Moudud
All the laws on land and property will be reformed and simplified to
facilitate national development, said Law Minister Moudud Ahmed. The
process for the reform is going on and four bills will be put forward
for discussion in the parliament. He was addressing as chief guest the
inaugural session of a day-long workshop of the district registrars
held at the auditorium of the Judicial Administration Training Institute.
Presided over by
law secretary Alauddin Sarder, the session was also addressed by state
minister for law Shahjahan Omar and inspector general of registration
Mizanur Rahman. Moudud said the administration and management of land
and ownership and transfer of land and properties must be reformed to
ensure national development.
The
cabinet committee on land reforms has already proposed a 25-point recommendation
to the government and the cabinet has approved the report. As a part
of the process, four bills to amend the Bangladesh Registration Act
1908, the Specific Relief Act 1877, the Transfer of Property Act 1882
and the Limitation Act 1908 will be placed in the parliament. -New
Age, September 13.
Separate
land body for ethnic minorities
Samata, an NGO working with the landless people, on Sunday stressed
formation of a separate land commission for the ethnic minorities and
amendment to the River Erosion and Sedimentation Act.
"The elites
and influential quarters mostly occupy the chars violating rights of
the landless and the ethnic minorities who are marginalised in the society,"
Shahrier Amin of Samata told women reporters at a meeting.
Samata
organised the meeting to highlight the necessity of forming a different
land commission for the indigenous people and to amend the River Erosion
and Sedimentation Act. They said the Bengali settlers "grab"
lands of the ethnic minorities as they belong to a different culture
and "are not familiar with the existing land related laws of the
country". The landless and the ethnic minorities are suppressed
group and mostly illiterate what the settlers use as a chance to grab
their lands. -New Age, September 13.
Judicial
body gets three more weeks
The tenure of one-member Judicial Commission on bomb attack on an Awami
League rally in Dhaka has been extended for another three weeks. Sources
close to the commission, headed by Justice Joynul Abedin of the High
Court, told the news agency that they had received the official order
relating to its first extension for three weeks. The commission was
constituted on August 22 just one day after the attack. -BSS, September
13.
Speedy
Trial Tribunal
Transparency International said 67.6 percent speedy trial court cases
involved underhand dealings.
The Bangladesh chapter
of the Berlin-based international corruption-watch body disclosed the
information during the publication of its report on "court watch"
in Dhaka.
According
to the report, some of the people including magistrates, lawyers and
court officials working in the speedy trial courts are involved in the
underhand dealings and extract illegal money from accused parties in
the cases under the much-talked-about the Law and Order Disturbance
Crime (Speedy Trial) Act 2002. The report also said 25.3 percent of
the speedy trial court cases were politically motivated and the government
influenced more than a third of the cases. -Prothom Alo, September
13.
Women's
reserved seats bill placed in JS
A bill was introduced in the Parliament outlining a complex procedure
of electing women members to 45 reserved seats on the basis of proportional
representation of a party or alliance in parliament.
The 14th amendment
to the Constitution has introduced 45 reserved seats of women raising
the strength of the 300-seat parliament to 345.
Law Minister Moudud
Ahmed introduced the Jatiya Sangsad (Women's Reserved Seats) Bill-2004
needed to execute the 14th amendment for electing the women MPs to the
reserved seats.
The 45 women's seats would be allocated to the parties and alliances
on the basis of their representation in parliament. After the allocation
of seats, a party or an alliance will be able to form separate alliances
with other party or alliance or independent members to elect women MPs
to the allocated seats. -UNB, September 14.
Corruption
rampant in UP, Pourasabha
Corruption is rampant in different service sectors of union parisads
and pourasabhas of the country.This was stated in a report on "Local
Government" by the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB)
presented at a roundtable discussion. TIB conducted a study at 52 unions
and six pourasabhas under five districts of greater Mymensingh.
According to the
study, 40 per cent UP Chairmen and Members are unfair in judgement.
The 10 per cent people who faced trials by them had given Tk 4,500 on
an average as bribe to win in the judgement. To procure nationality
certificates, 8 per cent recipients under UP said they gave Tk 20 per
certificate while 61 per cent of pourasabha paid Tk 9 per certificate.
In
relief distribution, the report showed that 52 per cent of the total
relief recipients have got less amount of assistance against the amount
provided by the government. On the role of relief distribution by the
UP, 74 per cent inhabitants are unhappy, 20 per cent partially happy
and only 1 per cent happy. -The Bangladesh Today , September 14.
Bribes
officials for land registration
About ninety percent of households are forced to bribe field level land
officials for registration of land as corruption and lack of transparency
and accountability reign supreme in land administration, Transparency
International Bangladesh (TIB) revealed. The offices of assistant commissioner
(AC) land, sub-registrar, tahsildar, deed writer, Kanungu and settlement
officer exacted about Tk12.21 crore in bribe from service seekers, the
TIB found in a survey conducted in six municipalities and 52 unions
of greater Mymensingh region during October to November last year. Each
individual household in municipalities and rural areas had to bribe
Tk 2,928 and 1,910 respectively on an average for land registration
and about 59 percent households showed land price 49 percent less than
actual to evade tax in connivance with registration officials and clerks.
The
survey also found that 92 percent of those who needed mutation of land
had to pay Tk 1,500 in bribe each and 12 percent of those who sold land
had to suffer various hassles including paying bribe. -Daily Star,
September 15 .
