Thaindian News

Dhaka, April 16 (IANS) A housing company, said to be promoted by a leader of Bangladesh’s ruling Awami League, has encroached upon land belonging to a temple and a Hindu cremation ground, a media report said Saturday.

Custodians of the temple and the cremation ground in a locality in the port city of Chittagong allege that the company has grabbed portions of the land, filled it with earth and has been selling plots, The Daily Star said.

The company has been obstructing cremation ever since it captured the ground two years ago, alleged Biplob Pal, who inherited the ground from his family.

Housing company Elite Land Limited, promoted by Masum Chowdhury, who identifies himself as a leader of the Jubo League, youth wing of the ruling Awami League, has denied any wrongdoing.

He said he was willing to vacate, provided someone could produce documents challenging his ownership.

Over the last two years, the firm has ‘grabbed’ portions of the temple land to make homes in Hathazari sub-district of Chittagong, the report said.

Elite Land Limited encroached upon the nearly one-acre cremation ground and a large portion of Laxmi Narayan Ashram, the shrine’s owners alleged.

The company is also forcibly purchasing arable lands for its Elite City housing project, which the Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) has not approved.

When the project was taken up two years ago at Dataram Road of the port city, the company offered a price of Tk 15 million ($20,000) per acre of land to lure villagers, many of them farmers. But it is now putting pressure on them to give away their land at Tk 7 to 7.6 million an acre, the villagers told the newspaper.

The company has so far “purchased” 16 acres of land where it wants to build a 500-plot housing project for nearly 50,000 people, said Chowdhury, vice-chairman of the company.

CDA in a letter dated Oct 14, 2010 to Elite Land Limited said: “As per the detailed area plan, the proposed land of the applicant is located in arable zone. Therefore, the proposal to use the land for residential purposes is not worthy of getting no objection certificate.”

But the company continues to sell plots on arable land, the report said.

Liton Dhor, one of the inheritors of Laxmi Narayan temple, said: “The developer has grabbed nearly 15 kathas (66.89 sq.m) of the temple’s land.”

He filed a general diary (GD) with Hathazari Police Station in this connection last month. Abul Kalam Azad, officer-in-charge of the police station, said they are looking into the matter.