Allegations have surfaced that a reservoir beside the main road in the Kailer Bazar area near Bogura Railway Station has been secretly leased out for commercial purposes.
The reservoir covers an area of 1.20 acres.
Previously, the lease for using the land adjoining the railway-owned reservoir was granted in the name of its adjacent landowner. However, in violation of railway regulations, a syndicate within the railway allegedly leased the reservoir commercially to 20 individuals linked to BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami.
Over the past three decades, vast portions of railway land have reportedly been encroached upon by land grabbers. A field visit found the site still waterlogged even in the dry season, with an 80-plot residential area already developed behind it.
According to railway documents, plot No. 724 under Khatian No. 3 in Chakbrindaban Mouza of Bogura Sadar upazila is classified as a pond.
Allegations suggest that a group is conspiring to hand over this classified reservoir to a commercial syndicate.
Locals claimed that associates of a former councillor and the district BNP’s organising secretary, among others, plan to build a market there. Some BNP and Jamaat men are reportedly involved in the process.
The Bangladesh Railway Land Management Policy states that if a pond or reservoir lease causes environmental or social harm, it should be licensed yearly without tender only to adjacent household owners for maintenance purposes.
Agricultural or fishery license holders are strictly prohibited from using such land for commercial ventures.
Local residents, Mahfuz Chowdhury, Akhtar Hossain, Shahnaz Parvin, Shah Rashedul Hasan, Monirul Haque, Nur Islam, Enamul Haque, and Abul Kashem, told TIMES of Bangladesh that they have already applied to the Director General of Bangladesh Railway to obtain a license under the policy. They claim to be the rightful leaseholders, but recently, local land grabbers fenced off the reservoir with tin sheets and began dumping municipal waste and sand to fill it.
The residents alleged that some railway officials were colluding with the syndicate. After their application reached the Director General, the issue was referred to the Western Zone office in Dhaka, which forwarded it to Rajshahi. Rajshahi then sent a letter to Lalmonirhat for action, but the process mysteriously stalled. No record of the correspondence can now be found, and the complainants claim certain officials are secretly negotiating to lease the site to others in exchange for money.
They specifically accused Golam Nabi, Kanungo (Official) of Railway Land Offices No. 3 and 4 in Bogura, of aiding the syndicate. Multiple attempts to contact Golam Nabi for comment were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, district BNP organising secretary AKM Khairul Bashar denied wrongdoing, saying, “Leasing land under existing laws is not a crime. The lease was obtained commercially with valid documents.”
Former Bogura municipal councillor Ershadul Bari Ershad said, “I know about the issue, but my name is not on any papers. My brother obtained the commercial lease as he owns property behind the site. He deposited Tk 59,000 to Bangladesh Railway for a three-year lease. Everything was done legally. BNP and Jamaat members are also part of it.”
Bangladesh Railway (Western Zone) General Manager Engineer Farid Ahmed confirmed that the Lalmonirhat Divisional Estate Officer, Manjurul Islam, has been directed to investigate the matter.
“The reservoir has not been leased to anyone. If anyone attempts to occupy it, we will file a case,” he said.
