Hill Voice, 26 November 2024, Special Correspondent:

Rehabilitation of Jumma Refugees

The historic Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Accord was signed on 2 December 1997 between the Government of Bangladesh and the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS) with a view to resolving the CHT problem in political and peaceful means.

As per Section No.1 of Part ‘D’ of the CHT Accord and in accordance with the 20-point Package Agreement signed on 9 March 1997 at Agartala, Tripura state, India, between the government and refugee leaders, 64,609 refugees belonging to 12,222 families returned from Tripura state.

Most of the economic facilities were provided to the returnee refugees through the Task Force. But their lands and homesteads were not returned. As their lands and villages are still occupied by the settlers, their rehabilitation has not yet been done properly.

According to the Jumma Refugee Welfare Association, 9,780 Jumma families are yet to get back their homesteads and lands and other demands were not implemented. 40 villages of India-returnee refugees located at Matiranga, Manikchari and Ramgarh Upazila of Feni valley, Dighinala in Maini valley, Mahalchari Upazila under Khagrachari hill district and in Maini and Longadu of Kachalong valley are yet under complete occupation of the Bengali settlers.

In addition, about 54,000 refugees returned from refugee camps in the state of Tripura on their own initiative and under the 16-point Package Agreement are deprived of rations. Though discussions were held at the meeting of the Task Force on Rehabilitation of India-Returnee Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons to provide rations to these refugees, no effective steps were taken in this regard.

Although the task force has been formed, Deputy Commissioners of three hill districts have been included in the last Task Force committee formed on January 31, 2018 unilaterally without any discussion with PCJSS, one of the signatories of the CHT Accord. It may also be noted that four years after the last meeting (10th meeting) of the Task Force held on October 22, 2019, the Task Force convened the meeting on September 24, 2023 at very short notice. As a result, the representatives of PCJSS and Jumma Refugee Welfare Association could not attend the meeting.

In fact, after the signing of the CHT Accord, two-thirds of the clauses including the core issues of the Accord have not been implemented even in the past 27 years.