86-acres of Erabarak River’s delisted from leasing list

The land ministry Tuesday delisted the 86-acres of leased water body (jalmahal) on the Erabarak River at Nabiganj upazila in Habiganj from the list of the jalmahals to be leased as per the recommendation of the River Commission.   

The decision was taken Tuesday at the 69th meeting of the Jalmahal lease committee of the land ministry at the secretariat aiming to preserve the navigability of the Erabarak River.

Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury chaired the virtual meeting with the deputy commissioners of the relevant districts and potential leasees.

As many as 69 general proposals and one miscellaneous proposal for leasing were settled at the meeting.

A total of 468 fishermens' cooperative associations applied online to take lease of the jalmahals for the 1429-1434 Bangabda under the Jalmahal Development Project.

In the 67th and 68th meetings of the committee concerned, 192 jalmahals got lease-approval at the district level.

The date for online application to lease jalmahals at upazila and district level has been extended until 13 April to help the fishermen and earn more revenue.

Saifuzzaman Chowdhury inaugurated the online application process on 22 February aiming to make the leasing process accessible for genuine fishermen, cutting out the middlemen.

Fishing areas of the beels, haors, low lying water bodies and rivers up for lease are called Jalmahal. There are about 38,000 Jalmahals in the country from where the government earns Tk100 crore revenue annually.