New pricing policy for acquired land on cards

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The government is formulating a national policy for compensating people displaced due to land acquisition through assessing their total asset losses by “full market value” instead of just considering the average market price of the land and an additional amount.

As per law, the additional amount is 50 percent of the average market price of the land acquired by the government.

A proposed policy, which will bring changes in the Acquisition and Requisition of Immovable Property Ordinance, 1982, now recommends “joint verification” of the assets of the persons affected.

“All project related asset losses will be compensated at full market value which is equivalent to the replacement value for the acquired assets,” says the draft of the proposed policy.

The proposed policy on involuntary resettlement, the first at the national level, is expected to minimise the problems of the people displaced by development work and riverbank erosion.

“The main objective of the proposed policy is to safeguard the rights of the project affected households/persons…to minimise the impacts of displacement on them and ensure that their lives are restored, or improved,” Joint Secretary of the land ministry Pius D Costa told The Daily Star.

The policy will also cover people displaced because of riverbank erosion and periodic eviction of informal settlers in urban areas (slum dwellers) and elsewhere for appropriate assistance and resettlement.

The Ministry of Land will execute the policy while the Asian Development Bank will provide the technical assistance for formulating it.

The state acquires private property every year for development work under the principle of “eminent domain”, which leads to displacement of thousands of people. These people get deprived of land, livelihood and shelter. Their traditional resources also eventually shrink. A few NGOs have so far tried to mitigate the troubles of these people during such development work like the construction of the Jamuna Bridge following their own guidelines.

The 1982 ordinance assures financial compensation but the proposed national policy will try to lessen the psychological impact of the displacement.

Law and Information Adviser Mainul Hosein at a national workshop at the Brac Centre recently said, “We only pay cash for the acquisition of land when we take up any development project, but we should also look at its human aspect.”

Besides, such acquisitions often force many landless people to abandon their age-old professions.

Under the proposed policy there are provisions for the rehabilitation of these segments of people, said Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, deputy team leader and resettlement specialist of Bangladesh Consultants Ltd, the consultancy agency for formulating the draft policy.

“Once I came across a boatman, who fears he would have to give up the family-trade for the construction of the Padma Multi-purpose Bridge…He does not want to be a rickshaw-puller in Dhaka and be a slum-dweller…We have asked the government to rehabilitate these people in areas where they can maintain their profession among their own communities,” Rezaul said. “We have asked the government to accommodate people of similar profession and culture in the same area.”

The proposed draft recommends formal disclosure of a project design, impacts on and entitlement/resettlement plan to all affected persons and communities, land ministry sources said. Besides, a grievance redress mechanism comprising all stakeholders will assess the plight of the displaced persons and compensate accordingly.

The existing 1982 ordinance has been appreciated earlier as it gives owners of immovable properties reasonable protection. Later, however, the ministries concerned and other stakeholders realised that some amendments regarding compensation are required in the ordinance.

Meanwhile, the actual price of the land is never recorded at the Sub-Register’s office to evade tax. Bangladesh Consultant’s Ltd found that the land price is documented at one third of the market price.

Land ministry sources claimed that under the framework of the new policy there will be a permanent solution to the housing problem of these people and it will be applied to all development projects including those funded domestically or by development partners or the private sector and also projects under public-private partnership.

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