Residents of 13 Villages Trapped in 30-Year Ban on Land Transactions on the Jamuna Char

People of 13 villages in the Jamuna char of Gabsara union in Bhuapur upazila of Tangail have not been able to buy or sell land for 30 years. The Ministry of Land began the BRS survey in this upazila in 1996. As part of it, the ministry finished the map survey (kistwar) on 17 sheets in Char Gabsara mouza under Gabsara union. It then prepared DP khatians and gave field parchas to the land owners.

The ministry finished the attestation work in 1999. People filed more than 300 objections under Section 30 against about 10,000 khatians. The authorities settled all of these through proper hearings by 2011. Later, while a few objections under Section 31 were still pending, the survey stopped for unknown reasons.

The halt also stopped land tax updates and mutation (kharij) in those mouzas. As a result, people of about 13 villages cannot sell land or take bank loans. In April last year, about 10,000 affected people signed an application to the Director General of the Department of Survey. They demanded that the earlier survey stay in force.

The Department of Survey then formed a team to visit the area. After the visit, the team reported that the mouza is a river flowing area. The affected people say the report is illogical. They say the surveys of all the mouzas around it ended long ago. They say only one mouza cannot be a river, and all of this land is farmland.