Call to revise decision to cancel lease of CHT land
Leaders of Bangladesh Rubber Garden Owners' Association have urged the government to reconsider the decision to cancel the lease of 35,000 acres of land for rubber cultivation in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).
The parliamentary standing committee on CHT affairs at its meeting on July 20 took the decision to cancel the lease.
At a press conference at the National Press Club in the city yesterday, SM Haroon-Ur-Rashid, secretary general of the organisation, said, “We restarted rubber cultivation in 1989 with huge investment as per the lease contract of 1980. We will be hit hard due to sudden cancellation of the lease.”
“Every year we save at least Tk 50 crore as the government would have to import rubber of such amount from abroad. We hope it will rise up to Tk 200 crore by 2020 if the government helps us,” he added.
He also placed other demands including allocation of sufficient money for infrastructure development of rubber gardens, demarcation of garden areas and security.
Senior Vice President ATM Jafrul Alam, former president Mirza Anwar Hossain, and Adviser Advocate Syed Rezaur Rahman were present at the press conference.
Comments