A recent study said about 98% of people in a survey area in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region are not aware of implementation progress of the CHT Peace Accord despite the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti’s (PCJSS) consistent claim that the government is not sincere or interested in implementing the accord even after 16 years.
The survey, prepared by Tanay Dewan and his team, was carried out among 222 people of seven unions in Rajasthali and Kaptai upazilas from September 25 to October 15 last year. With the title “Enforcement of local institutional laws focusing public awareness through sustainable good governance approach in CHT,” it was done by two NGOs Nowzuwan and Ashika Manabik Unnayan Kendra and was unveiled at a workshop at Cirdap auditorium in the capital yesterday.
The study revealed that among the communities, Chakma, Marma, Bangalee and Tripura are completely in dark about the accord’s implementation while people of the Khiyang and Tanchangya communities know about it.
The accord, signed between the PCJSS and the government on December 2 in 1997, ended a decade-long armed struggle of the indigenous people in the CHT region.
According to the study, 95.74% of people are not familiar with traditional laws, 72.34% unfamiliar to rules and regulations of union parishads and 100% unaware of union as well as upazila budgets. Many people claim the accord has failed but it has in fact brought a way to establish a permanent solution to the CHT crisis, said Bir Bahadur U Shwe Sing, state minister of CHT Affairs, while addressing the programme.
However, CHT Affairs Ministry Secretary Naba Bikrom Kishore Tripura, who presided over the programme, said: “Those who say the accord was not successful are actually lying.”
The study revealed 100% of the total population are not informed about activities of the CHT Land Dispute Commission while 36.17% of them are involved in land disputes.
