Moshiur Rahman Selim, Cumilla South

Thousands of acres of land belonging to the eastern zone of Bangladesh Railway, the country's primary transportation network, have been illegally occupied, with no visible initiative from authorities to recover the properties. Multistoried buildings and various permanent structures have mushroomed across these grabbed lands, while local real estate syndicates have allegedly constructed flats, houses, markets, and shops to sell them off to third parties.

The situation gives the impression that there is no authority to oversee these violations. Although the Eastern Railway authorities recently conducted eviction drives to recover railway properties in areas such as Nangalkot Bazar, Monoharganj's Khila Bazar, and Nathpetua Bazar, the reclaimed locations fell right back into the hands of encroachers within days. Land grabbing has essentially turned into a festival across Laksham, Nangalkot, Lalmai, and Monoharganj.

Due to alleged negligence, nepotism, and corruption among officials from the government revenue department, Eastern Railway, and other departments, local influential individuals have swallowed up thousands of acres of public property. Critics argue that administrative loopholes and illicit occupancy under political covers have granted the encroachers free rein to act arbitrarily, plunging the Eastern Railway's properties into a culture of lawlessness. The shadow of corruption within the railway land department appears impossible to eradicate.

According to internal railway sources, while regional administrative offices occasionally operate around the Laksham Railway Junction area, there is virtually no proactive drive to recover government land from illegal occupants. Vast expanses of railway-owned khas land, ponds, ditches, water bodies, and staff colonies worth hundreds of millions of taka are located in this region. Furthermore, individuals have reportedly erected buildings, shopping complexes, residences, and shops for commercial use by leasing properties under pseudonyms, hiding behind organizational banners, or claiming agricultural usage. Some occupiers are even renting out the properties or posing as legitimate owners to pocket massive sums of money by selling off government land.

Although successive political governments spanning 55 years of independence have beaten drums and taken various initiatives to recover encroached Eastern Railway land, none have yielded practical results, instead serving to line the pockets of certain complicit railway officials. Despite various pressures exerted by political governments, the government, and members of parliamentary standing committees on ministries and associated departments, efforts have continually stalled due to political and bureaucratic complexities, leaving the Ministry of Railways bound to follow the same cyclical path without effective recourse.

An Eastern Railway source revealed that the prevailing internal maxim within the regional land department operates on a quid-pro-quo basis. The Laksham Railway Land Office has allegedly transformed into a hub of massive corruption. The Eastern Railway headquarters oversees greater Cumilla, greater Noakhali, greater Sylhet, and greater Chattogram, managing four major railway lines: Akhaura-Sylhet, Dhaka-Chattogram, Laksham-Noakhali, and Laksham-Chandpur. Thousands of acres of government land on both sides of these routes have been encroached upon to construct multistoried buildings, shopping complexes, houses, and hundreds of thousands of diverse permanent structures.

When questioned about how these illegal structures continue to rise in blatant defiance of the Ministry of Railways, no official from the Eastern Railway authority has been able to provide answers. These unauthorized structures continue to flourish on illegally occupied railway land with the direct connivance of certain officials and employees, backed by local influential political figures. The parliamentary standing committee on the Ministry of Railways has previously proposed recovering these lands and bringing them under a leasing framework to boost revenue. Out of approximately 25,000 acres of Eastern Railway land, roughly 6,000 acres are currently under private illegal occupation, alongside 2,000 government staff quarters, residences, and over 500 ponds and water bodies that have slipped into the hands of land mafias.

Another source disclosed that approximately 35 percent of Eastern Railway's assets have been illegally seized. To ensure proper management of railway properties, the authorities ought to publish a detailed annual account specifying how much land is utilized for railway operations, how much has been legally leased, the terms and compliance of those agreements, and the exact volume of encroached property. Although plans for eviction drives and the launch of railway help lines were announced to take place within a short timeframe, nearly two years have passed without bearing fruit.

In the event of fires or major disasters at railway staff quarters, fire service units and other agencies often find it difficult to source water and deploy equipment swiftly due to blocked access. Moreover, although railway legal offices have filed numerous lawsuits to recover government land, these cases mysteriously linger for extended periods without resolution, leaving forged vouchers and routine hearing dates as the land department's sole functional mainstays.

When local journalists approached the Eastern Railway regional office and local land branch authorities for comments, officials expressed an inability to provide information without clearance from higher authorities, citing political pressure.

However, they noted that for the sake of generating substantial regional revenue, it is imperative for the government to execute eviction drives through judicial intervention or executive task forces.