Check graft in CHT rationing

CHT Commission urges govt
Staff Correspondent
Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Commission yesterday requested the government to check corruption of the rationing system in CHT and provide rations to the Bangalee settlers who want to return to their previous places.
The commission also urged the government to activate the CHT Land Commission as settlement of land problems will help to resolve more than 80 percent problems of the indigenous people there.
The commission made the call when its delegation led by its co-chair Lord Eric Avebury called on Food Minister Abdur Razzak at the ministry.
“There is a huge volume of corruption in rationing system,” commission member Shapan Adnan told The Daily Star after the meeting.
The commission urged the government for providing rations to the Bangalee settlers who want to return to their previous houses outside the CHT, he said.
Lord Avebury said the government should activate the CHT Land Commission to demilitarise the civil administration in the CHT as per CHT accord.
The minister assured that government would take necessary measures in this regard and adding that it is also considering formation of a land commission to settle the disputes of the indigenous people both in hilly and plain areas.
He sought help from the commission in resolving the land problems of the indigenous people.
Earlier, the delegation members called on Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni at her office.
Dipu Moni said the present government will take all the steps for full implementation of the CHT Peace Accord and added that it will be easier to solve any problem in CHT as peoples' representatives are in power now.
The commission's resource person Yuko Shiva, Bangladesh secretariat Coordinator Shirin Sultana Lira, International Secretariat Coordinator Christina Nilsson and its member Dr Meghna Guhathakurta were also the delegation members.