Engineers and housing department staff on Saturday called on the government of Afghanistan to pursue land grabbers and implement large housing projects to address the housing shortage across the country.
"The government should consider a broad programme for making shelters for people so that on one side the land grabbing – which is increasing on a daily basis – is stopped and on the other hand the land prices are brought down," said Mohamma Amin Qane, head of the housing affairs administration.
Thousands of acres of land available across the Afghan capital Kabul have been claimed by landgrabbers, but the government has not acted in most cases to take the land back. With the growing population, more people are setting up homes on the hillsides.
A number of analysts as well said that the problem of landgrabbing is on a rise as the government has no proper programme and pays no attention to the issue.
In some cases, those in power who claim government land as their own build on the land and then sell the houses to local people at exorbitant prices.