Meeting of Advisory Committee of MoCHT held

On 29 January 2009 meeting of the advisory committee of the Ministry of CHT Affairs (MoCHTA) was held at ministry's conference hall of Bangladesh Secretariat in Dhaka. Presided by State Minister of the ministry Dipankar Talukder, MP, the meeting was attended by following members of the Committee:
1) Mr. Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma, Chairman of the CHT Regional Council
2) Mr. Jatindra Lal Tripura, MP from Khagrachari constituency
3) Dr. Jagat Jyoti Chakma, Chairman of the Rangamati Hill District Council
4) Mr. Manindra Lal Tripura, Chairman of the Khagrachari Hill District Council
5) Mr. Thanzama Lushai, Chairman of the Bandarban Hill District Council
6) Mr. Chawhla Prue Chowdhury Jimi, representative of the Circle Chief of the Bohmang Circle
7) Mr. Saching Prue Chowdhury, Circle Chief of the Mong Circle
8) Md. Narunnabi, nominated by the government
9) Md. Shahjahan Molla, nominated by the government
10) Md. Azizur Rahman, nominated by the government

Other two members Chakma Circle Chief Raja Devasish Roy and MP of Bandarban constituency Mr. Bir Bahadur were absent in the meeting. On the other, officials of the MoCHTA were present in the meeting.

Development of the CHT and implementation of the CHT Accord were the agenda of the meeting. State Minister Dipankar Talukder said that for the sake of implementation of the CHT Accord, the development of the CHT should be accelerated. He reiterated that government would implement the Accord.

Participating in the discussion, CHTRC Chairman Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma alias Santu Larma opined that sustainable development depended on law and order situation and general administration. However, the law and order situation in CHT was not favourable to the development. Terrorist activities including kidnapping, extortion etc were going on through the CHT. He also said that military forces have been continuing to influence the generaladministration in CHT. He expressed that as per CHT Accord, military forces including de facto military rule 'Operation Uttoron' should be withdrawn first for the sake of good governance and sustainable development of CHT.

Chairmen of the three HDCs said that lack of coordination of development activities of the CHT institutions was continuing in CHT. Development activities of CHT have been hindered due to lack of coordination. They opined that development activities of all the CHT institution should be coordinated in proper way.

Though the agenda on implementation of CHT Accord was set for discussion, however, concrete discussion was not made on this issue. Finally the meeting was ended without concrete decision