“Protection and Usage of Agricultural Land Bill, 2022” was placed in the Jatiya Sangsad on Thursday.
Opposition lawmaker Rawshan Ara Mannan placed the bill in the House with Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair, reports BSS.
Placing the bill, the opposition lawmaker of women seat -47 told the parliament that the enactment of the bill is necessary for the protection of the farm land, otherwise the country in future will face serious shortage of food production.
After placing the bill which was brought in the parliament by the opposition lawmaker, it was sent to the concerned parliamentary standing committee for further scrutiny.
The country is losing approximately 68,700 hectares of arable land every year -- most of it going to housing and industrialisation, according to the data of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) from 2015.
“The government in 2001 frames a policy to protect arable land but people hardly care about the policy. That's why, we need stringent law and its implementation,” experts opined.
A confusing situation has been created over the proposed bill's approval as its draft was prepared in 2011. It was modified twice in 2015 and 2016.