DCs seek nod to start survey, lease out land
Minister insists on preparing rules for CHT Land Dispute Resolution Commission Act
DEEPAK ACHARJEE, Dhaka
Deputy Commissioners (DCs) of three hill districtsRangamati, Khagrachari and Bandarbanhave sought permission to start a land survey and lease out land to local people to resolve land disputes in the hills. The DCs have already sent letters to the cabinet secretary, proposing to begin the land survey work and lease out land to the local people, government sources have said. In a letter, DC of Rangamati AKM Mamunur Rashid said that they would not be able to update the districts land records without conducting a land survey.
A total of 1,56,829 acres of land (cultivable and non-cultivable) have been leased out to the local people, but they have grabbed more plots of land and added them to their possession. The government was thus being deprived of its revenue, the letter says.
It is possible to update the land record if a land survey is done. At the same time, it would be possible to resolve land disputes in the district, the DC said in his letter.
About land lease, the DC of Rangamati has said that giving land on lease in the hill districts has remained suspended from 2001 following a notification issued by the ministry of Chattogram Hill Tracts.
This prompted the local people to grab khas or government land on which they built houses, while more khas land is being grabbed, the letter says.
At least 11,000 applications for land lease are pending and lease-related cases are yet to be resolved. This has resulted in the government losing out on land development tax, the DC added in his letter.
The DC of Rangamati also requested the authorities concerned to review the land development tax.
The DCs of Bandarban and Khagrachari,
too, have written similar letters to the cabinet secretary, seeking permission to resolve land disputes by conducting a land survey and giving land on lease to the local people, DC Mamunur Rashid informed.
When contacted, Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs minister Bir Bahadur Ushwe Sing told The Independent that it was impossible to conduct any land survey and provide land lease without preparing the rules of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Land Dispute Resolution Commission (Amendment) Act-2016. The proposed legislation was currently being scrutinised by the land ministry.
It is only possible to conduct a land survey after resolving the land dispute by preparing the rules of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Land Dispute Resolution Commission (Amendment) Act-2016, and the matter was under the CHT Land Commission and the cabinet committee on CHT Peace Accord, he said.
I hope the rules of the CHT Land Dispute Resolution Commission (Amendment) Act would be prepared soon and the land disputes resolved, he added.
A high official of the of Chattogram Hill Tracts Affairs Ministry said that they had sent a draft of rules of the CHT Land Dispute Resolution Commission (amendment) Act to the land ministry few months ago.
We dont understand that why they are delaying its finalisation, he said.
Sources in the land ministry said their experts were scrutinising the Acts draft rules. The expert team is headed by a joint secretary of the ministry.
We will call an inter-ministerial meeting within a month to finalise the draft rules, he said on Saturday.
According to a source, Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS) had prepared the draft rules of the Act and it was sent to the CHT affairs ministry for further action.
According to the draft rules, prepared by the PCJSS, So long this commission will remain under the land ministry, it will certainly take any initiative on land dispute after taking opinion and advise from the Cht regional council and the Cht Affairs ministry.
To execute the functions of the land commission properly, the local administration and the police and all other organisations will have to provide all cooperation on a priority basis to the commission. If not, the commission will be able to take legal action against any organisations or persons concerned, the draft rules say.
Earlier, on October 6, 2016, the Jatiya Sangsad had passed the Chittagong Hill Tracts Land Dispute Resolution Commission (amendment) Act-2016 to remove the ongoing stalemate in the functioning of the CHT Land Dispute Resolution Commission.
The people of the CHT areas have filed at least 25,000 complaints with the land commission so far. But the previous commission had failed to resolve the disputes.
Twenty-two years after a peace agreement was signed by the PCJSS and the then Awami League government, the authorities are yet to resolve the land disputes in the hill districts. As a result, different sections have from time to time created various crises in the hill areas. The peace accord had been signed on December 2, 1997 to end decades of armed struggle in the volatile hill tracts.
The persistence of disputes over land was frequently triggering conflicts and communal clashes in the hills. A number of people belonging to ethnic minority groups of the hill tracts are killed every year over land disputes.
The Chittagong Hill Tracts, spread over 5,093 square miles, covers the Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban districts. The region is flanked by two international borderson the south-east by Myanmar, and on the north by India. The region is mostly populated by various tribes like the Jummas, Chakmas, Marmas and the Garos.
At present, people of the CHT constitute approximately 0.5 per cent of the countrys total population. Population density here is about 113 per sq km, against 1,147 per sq km of the country as a whole. There are 13 ethnic minorities in the CHT, where Chakmas constitute 24.72 per cent.
IK
