Hill Voice, 12 September 2019, Thursday, Rangamati: Meeting of the Chittagong Hill Tracts CHT (CHT) Land Dispute Resolution Commission was held at Rangamati Circuit House in Rangamati district on Thursday. Presided over by Chairman of the Commission, Anowar-ul Hoque, the meeting was attended by its members Barrister Devasish Roy, Chief of Chakma Circle; Saching Prue Chowdhury, Chief of Mong Circle; Goutam Kumar Chakma, representative of Chairman of the CHT Regional Council; Brishaketu Chakma, Chairman of Rangamati Hill District Council; Kongjeri Chowdhury, Chairman of Khagrachari Hill District Council; Singyoung Mro, representative of Chairman of Bandarban Hill District Council et al. Besides, Md. Ali Monsur, Secretary of the Commission was also present in the meeting.
Approval of resolution of the last meeting, progress of the Commission’s work, internally displaced persons etc. were discussed in the meeting. The last meeting was held on 19 March 2019 at Rangamati Circuit House in Rangamati district. In fact, no progress was made in the work of Land Commission so far. Adoption of Rules of the Commission, appointment of staff, setting up of two sub-offices in Rangamati and Bandarban district, allocation of fund for the Commission etc. remain undone as before.
It is learnt that the government re-sent a revised draft of Rules of the Commission to the CHT Regional Council (CHTRC) for its opinion. Accordingly, on 11 September 2019, CHT Regional Council convened a consultation meeting for reviewing the said draft Rules at CHTRC office in Rangamati. Apart from the concerned members and officials of the CHTRC, Chakma circle chief barrister Devasish Roy, former district judge Romani Mohan Chakma and former executive officer of CHTRC Sukriti Ranjan Chakma were present in this meeting. It is worthy to be mentioned that CHTRC submitted a draft Rules of the Land Commission in January 2017 to the government for approval/adoption. But since then, the government has kept the Rules of the Land Commission hanging for almost three years. It is due to non-finalization of the Rules, to start with hearing of land disputes or judicial procedure of the Land Commission could not be made possible.
