Our Correspondent :
The Municipal Council of Saidpur held a press conference to protest the unwarranted intervention of the railway authorities in the name of showing the building plan and Map of the buildings, built within the area of 25.75 acre land.
Mayor Rafika Akhter Jahan Baby presided over the press conference held on Saturday at Saidpur Municipality. Mayor Rafika Jahan Baby said in a written statement that there has been a long-running dispute with the railway authorities over 25.75 acres of land handed over to the municipal market.
The railway authorities filed a lawsuit against the municipality for declaring it illegal, which was decided by the appellate court on behalf of the municipality. Judgments and decrees were passed in 2011 against the plaintiffs and in favor of the municipality.
Another lawsuit was filed on 17/09 demanding possession of khas. The lawsuit was decided on 25/04/2018 against the railways and on behalf of the municipality. The municipality did not appear in the appeal case.
Mayor said that with one case after another, the railway authorities are harassing the municipality which is completely unjust and out of rights. However, in 1979, a license agreement was signed for 14.02 acres of railway market land, which was repealed by the Bangladesh Railway (Repill) Ordinance of 1983.
Section C of that Ordinance 2 states that all agreements or agreements with the Railways shall be deemed to be contracts or agreements of the Government of Bangladesh. He further said that according to an earlier decision of the Bangladesh government, the hat-bazaars of the railways which are under the municipality or city corporation area are handed over to the concerned city or municipality. In 1985, the Deputy Commissioner took over the possession of 25.75 acres of land of Saidpur Railway and its shop and buildings on behalf of the Government of Bangladesh.
She transferred the possession of the said land and shop along with the municipality and vested its ownership with the Ministry of Land. In the handover, the municipality was entrusted with all the rights such as issuing and renewing licenses, collecting rent and tolls, i.e. overall management and operation.
Mayor complained that the municipality was working according to those instructions. But even then, the railway authorities have been misleading the shopkeepers and the citizens by miking various evictions in the municipal market area. In a continuation of this, miking has been done to submit the building plan map of the car building on 25.75 acres of land to the Parbatipur Railway Kanungo office, which is the extreme unauthorized practice of the railway authorities.
So we have called on the people not to be confused by miking in protest. But such activities of the railways are unsolicited and unwelcome, she said. They need to stop such harassment. So she sought the intervention of higher authorities in this matter. She said a written request has already been made to meet the Railway Minister to resolve the issue, which has also been sent to the Pakshi office of the Railways. The Municipal Council drew the attention of the journalists to cooperate by highlighting all these issues. Among others, panel mayor-1 Shahin Hossain, Ward councilor Shahin Akhter Shahin, Jobaidur Rahman Shahin, Ershad Hossain Pappu, and other councilors were present at the time.
