Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) authorities alleged that some local influential people had grabbed 11 acres of its land, hindering foreign investment and employment generation in the zone. Police and district administrations were not doing enough to recapture the lands from the grabbers, officials told a press conference yesterday. “The land-grabbers are eating into our lands, which prevents development works and foreign investment in the KEPZ. But we are getting no sufficient help from police and district administrations,” KEPZ managing director Brigadier General (Retd) Hasan Nasir said. He said the local land-grabbers had grabbed 11 acres of land in the name of graveyard. MD said the district administration, however, retrieved four acres which were yet to be demarcated. “We sent 13 letters since 1999. But no response yet and the land-grabbers have been using the chance (of not demarcation).” The district administration was yet to give them the Deed of Transfer and Mutation of Land, Nasir Hasan said, adding that they were unable to accommodate foreign investors at the zone for this reason. “We cannot lease out industrial plots to foreign investors as the Deed of Transfer and Mutation of Land have not been provided,” he said. Youngone have just set up four industrial units at the zone, where 10,000 people have been employed, he added. MD also said if they got the Deed of Transfer and Mutation of Land, they would be able to increase employment to 50,000 at the KEPZ in two years. He alleged some local workers drew salaries from KEPZ without doing any work. When the salaries were stopped, they started waging movement against the decision, Nasir said. Mohammed Saiful Islam, another official, said then Prime Minister approved a proposal of KEPZ on August 3 in 1995. He said they had applied for land on December 13 in 1996 and received land on August 3 in 1999. The KEPZ sources said they had built 22 factory buildings, 24 kilometres of roads, a female dormitory for 5,400 workers and a golf course and planted 1.7m trees. Various other development works are also underway on about 2,500 acres of land in the zone. A high official of the KEPZ said they were just provided with the licence. He said they could provide jobs to at least 100,000 people of Bangladesh if everything remained in their favour.
