Speakers at a dialogue held in the capital yesterday demanded special allocation for the country’s indigenous population in the upcoming budget.
The programme, titled “We Want an Indigenous Friendly Budget,” was organised by ActionAid and took place in Kawranbazar area.
Shaktipod Tripura, organising secretary of Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples’ Forum, said: “Indigenous people are poorer than the poor people in Bangladesh because they are losing their land to grabbers.
“The government, in its election manifesto, promised to give special benefits to the community, but in reality nothing has happened.”
In FY2013-14, the government allotted Tk755 crore for the Chittagong Hill Tracts community and Tk16 crore for plain land indigenous people, when the allocation should have been at least Tk4,000 crore, he added.
Sanjeeb Drong, general secretary of the forum, said around 65% of the population in the CHT region and 80% in the plain land were poor due to land grabbing. He placed five demands to ensure separate budget and arrangements to maintain that budget for the development of the indigenous community in all aspects.
Rabindranath Shoren, president of Bangladesh Adibashi Parishad, said: “Only budget allocation is not enough. The CHT Land Commission Amendment Act has not been implemented properly, which gave the grabbers leeway to steal these people’s land. If the nation and the government become more accepting towards the indigenous population, it will be easier to save these communities.”
Prof Dalem Chandra Barman, vice-chancellor of ASA University, said: “The state is not playing its role properly, and it is affecting the indigenous community.”
Fazle Hossain Badsha MP, convener of the parliamentary caucus of indigenous peoples, claimed a vested group were plotting against the indigenous community.
“The community in Barendra region suffer from lack of water, which should have been brought to the government’s attention,” he said.
“Those who have lost their land should be rehabilitated,” he added.
Among others, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon and member of parliamentary caucus on indigenous peoples Ushaton Talukdar MP were also present at the event.
