Govt yet to hand over control to district councils

Adivasi leader Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma yesterday said the past governments had not handed the control of any important issues, including law and order and land management, over to the councils of three hill districts as promised in the 1997 peace accord.
These issues are very necessary for the full implementation of the deal, he told a discussion on "15 years of the CHT peace accord", organised by Manusher Jonno Foundation at the capital's Brac Centre to review its current status.
"If the government wants, it can hand over the issues within six months," said the Adivasi leader, popularly known as Santu Larma. People of the Chittagong Hill Tracts are still hopeful of the accord's full implementation during this government's tenure, he added.
On Friday, Larma, chief of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity (PCJSS), told a press conference that a meeting between secretaries to different ministries and the CHT ministry decided to hand over the issues within August 30.
According to the peace agreement, management of 33 issues are supposed to be handed over to the three CHT district councils. Apart from law and order and land management, these include education, agriculture, dispute resolution, and unreserved forests.
Meanwhile, State Minister for CHT Affairs Dipankar Talukdar yesterday refuted Larma's claim that this government had not handed over any important issues to the CHT district councils. He said many important issues like primary education, agriculture, and youth development department were already handed over, reports our Rangamati correspondent.
The minister also said most of the clauses of the peace accord had been implemented in the last 15 years. The accord has 72 clauses in all and, 48 of them have been executed so far, he told a press conference at the Awami League office in Rangamati town.
Speaking at the discussion in Dhaka, Larma warned that the CHT tension would only intensify if the peace agreement was not implemented. "The situation in the region will depend on the way the government treats and evaluates the CHT issues."
Shaheen Anam, executive director of Manusher Jonno Foundation, chaired the discussion, while Prof Mizanur Rahman, chief of National Human Rights Commission; Abdul Qayyum Mukul, associate editor of the daily Prothom Alo, and economist Prof Abul Barakat, among others, spoke one the occasion.