Chittagong Hill Tracts: Government Accused of Not Executing Peace Accord
Members of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council (CHTRC) raised their voices Wednesday against what they said the government's continued apathy towards full implementation of the CHT peace treaty.
The allegation came during a cabinet committee meeting on 'Implementation of Chittagong Hill Tract Peace Treaty' at the LGRD Ministry conference room.
LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan presided over the meeting. Among others, Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moudud Ahmed, State Minister for Land Ukil Abdus Sattar Bhuiyan, Whip Wahidul Alam, Deputy Minister for CHT Affairs Moni Swapan Dewan and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on CHT Affairs Ministry were present at the meeting. Goutam Chakma and Sudha Sindhu Khisha represented the CHT Regional Council at the meeting.
Earlier, at a meeting of the cabinet committee on April 17
last year, the government asked the authorities concerned to implement a number
of clauses of the treaty, including the Regional Working Guidelines, and to
further scrutinise the amendment of the Land Commission law and hand over some
district council bodies to the CHTRC within a month.
But nothing has been done yet although one year has passed.
The Regional Working Guidelines was earlier sent to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) after scrutiny by the Law Ministry, but the PMO sent it back to the Secretaries Committee.
But the Secretaries Committee then decided to take recommendations
from the deputy commissioners (DCs) and superintendents of police (SPs) of the
three hill districts.
