The government is planning a law to protect the agricultural land in the country, with a provision of at least two-year imprisonment and penalty of Tk 50,000 to Tk 10 lakh for violation of the law.
This was disclosed at the meeting of Land Use Implementation Committee under the ministry of land in the city yesterday with the Minister M Rezaul Karim Hira in the chair.
Abdul Latif Mia, the team leader of coastal land zoning project, presented the draft of the law styled "Protection of the Agricultural Land and Land Use Act-2011".
Over the shrinking of arable land in the country, concern was expressed at the meeting with a strong view that the country needs to formulate the law immediately for protecting arable land, since per capita arable land has reduced to 17 decimal, and within 2050 it would decline further to 8 decimal for the expected 300 million people.
Under the proposed law, any kind of construction for housing, industry, shrimp hatchery, brickfield on the arable land and other uses of arable land for non-agricultural purposes are strictly prohibited.
The law has strictly opposed structural changes of the water bodies across the country including rivers, canals, haors, and marshlands, which need to be protected as the fisheries zone.
The meeting also put emphasis on the making of separate land zoning map that has already been done by the government at the union level.
The map indicates areas like agriculture, housing, water bodies including river, ponds and fisheries sites, forests, road, highways and railways, hat-bazar, commercial and industrial areas, tea, rubber and horticultural sites, coastal region, tourist spot, island areas etc.
Regarding the law, the land minister said, "Bangladesh is incurring a loss as much as 220 hectares of arable land per day due to unplanned development works or projects, which is a threat to food security for the growing population in the country."
News Source: The Daily Star