Leasing Jalmahal goes online

The Ministry of Land has introduced the provision of submitting Jalmahal lease application online. As a result, from now on, the lease application can be submitted from land.gov.bd or directly by visiting jm.lams.gov.bd website. Experts believe that this will reduce the incidence of conflict over the lease of Jalmahal and corruption in this sector will also go off. According to a circular issued by the Ministry of Land on November 15, according to the Government Jalmahal Management Policy, 2009, registered and actual fishermen's co-operative societies have submitted applications to the Ministry of Land, district and Upazila for development projects for leasing jalmahal. However, it should be noted that the application is rejected in the selection process if the required documents are not submitted with the application as the application is submitted in the existing manner . The petitioner filed a complaint to the effect that the petitioner's association had submitted a paper regarding the rejected application and was requested to consider the application later. The circular further said, "Competition for Jalmahal lease, various complications are arising in the submission of applications of multiple associations." According to the circular, online database (Land Information Bank) has been completed in other areas including Sairat Mahal as a digital step in land management. The process of paying land development tax including online e-namjari has been introduced. If the process of accepting Jalmahal lease application is started online, it will be possible to resolve the complexity of the lease process including submission of Jalmahal lease application. It is to be noted that beel, haor, baor, low wetlands and catchment areas in rivers are called Jalmahal. According to one estimate, the number of jalmahals in the country is about 36 thousand. With these leases, revenue of around one hundred crore taka is collected annually. Several Jalmahals have been kept without lease as traditional and scenic places like Ramsagar in Dinajpur and Hurasagar in Sirajganj. Notable among the jalmahals declared as fish sanctuaries are Tanguar Haor in Sunamganj, Hakaluki Haor in Moulvibazar etc.