The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Speakers at a roundtable in the city yesterday remarked that complication created by different acts stalled the development of Chittagong hill tracts region.

The constitution and various other Acts such as the Hill Tracts Regulation Act-1900, The Hill Tracts Peace Accord Act-1997 and Hill-Tracts District Council Act are in force there, which create huge complications in every sector, they added.

They were addressing the roundtable titled "Prospect and Problems of the Hill Tracts" held at the National Press Club.

Hill Tracts Development and Rehabilitation Foundation organised the roundtable with its President Dr Sirajul Islam in the chair.

Former Secretary of the Government Bahauddin Chowdhury, Lawyer of the Supreme Court MH Rashid, journalists Rakib Uddin, Kaiyum Khan Milon and Jalil Bhuiyan, President of Lama Upazila Teachers' Association Saching Murang, Student leader Sakhnaw Murang, among others, addressed it.

They said wide barren land to the region could not be productive if they are not distributed among the landless people due to complication created by the various acts.

Many people of the region's small community became virtually gipsy men in spite of large fertile land (5093 square mile), and huge natural resources, they noted.

Various active land acts are the main obstacles in the distribution of the barren land among the farmers, they informed.

They urged the government to reform land acts to ease distribution and exchange of the land, abolishing inconsistencies among the various acts.