A contracting firm in Kaliganj, Jhenaidah, has been accused of occupying a man's fruit orchard land, storing a large quantity of bricks and brick chips on it and damaging it by running heavy machinery. The landowner says his land has been used without permission for about four months, and that repeated verbal complaints to the upazila administration have brought no solution.

It was learnt that in mid-February this year a contracting firm stored bricks and brick chips on about 10 bighas of land belonging to Jalal Uddin, a resident of Bhatghara village in Raigram union of the upazila. He alleges that running an excavator and a roller machine inside the orchard has also damaged the land and the trees.

Jalal Uddin said: "An influential contractor has stored a huge amount of bricks and brick chips in my fruit-bearing mango orchard without any permission. Heavy excavators and rollers have also been run on the land and inside the orchard. The contracting company has been doing this for the past four months. I have suffered a loss of about Tk 3 to 4 lakh. Despite being told again and again to stop, they have used their influence to keep the land occupied."

He said the upazila administration had paid no heed despite repeated complaints, and had taken no real step even though it was asked many times to act.

Azim Hossain, the official in charge for the contracting firm, said: "Can anyone keep materials on someone's orchard or land without permission? We have the landowner's permission."

The representative acknowledged the damage to the orchard and land and said the materials would be removed from the orchard very quickly. But he refused to pay the compensation the landowner is demanding. "This is government work, so we cannot pay any compensation," he said. "We can level the soil of the orchard."

Asked about the matter, Kaliganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer Rezwana Nahid said: "I have heard of such an incident. I have instructed the upazila engineer to look into it and take the necessary action. The upazila engineer is dealing with it."

Kaliganj Upazila Engineer (LGED) Syed Shahriar Akash did not answer repeated calls to his mobile phone.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.