Effective land commission urged to resolve CHT land disputes

The decades-old issues in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), rooted in unresolved land disputes, can only be addressed through an effective Land Commission, political party leaders and rights activists have said.

Failure to operationalise the Land Commission has kept thousands of disputes unresolved, fuelling conflict and instability, they said at a views-exchange meeting held at Dhaka Reporters Unity today.

Saiful Haque, general secretary of the Biplobi Workers Party, said the lack of progress stems from the government's reluctance to implement the Accord. "Instead of peace, militarisation in the CHT has increased. The crisis cannot be resolved by fostering divisions between hill people and Bengalis."

He added that the media rarely highlights these issues, which allows the issue to remain neglected. 

"There are two different systems of governance – one for the plains and another for the hill districts. This mindset of the ruling class has not changed. Only a broad-based social and political agreement can resolve the problem, and future governments must take it seriously," he said.

Echoing him, Ruhin Hossain Prince, general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, said land ownership is the root of the crisis. 

"Without resolving land disputes, no other problem can be solved. Laws exist, but their rules and regulations are never implemented. Political parties make promises on paper, but fail in practice," he said.

The meeting, titled "One Year of the Interim Government: Activating the Land Commission to Resolve the Land Issues in the Hills", was also attended by Advocate Subrata Chowdhury, acting president of Gonoforum; Shamsul Huda, executive director of the Association for Land Reform and Development; Nazmul Haque Pradhan, general secretary of Bangladesh Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal; Bazlur Rashid Firoz, general secretary of Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal; and indigenous rights activist Mainthen Premila.

Speakers noted that the Land Commission established to resolve complex land issues, has remained ineffective for decades. The rules of the commission have not been finalised, while the chairman's post has been vacant for long periods, leaving over 22,000 applications pending.

The commission was created as a key outcome of the Peace Accord signed in 1997, but structural weaknesses, poor funding, lack of manpower, and legal inconsistencies have stalled its progress. 

The Land Commission Act of 2001 clashed with provisions of the Accord, prompting repeated calls for amendments. Although the law was amended in 2016, rules and regulations are yet to be drafted, leaving disputes unresolved, they said.

Official data shows that 22,866 applications were submitted by January 2017. A meeting planned in Rangamati in September 2022 was cancelled due to protests, and with the chairman's seat vacant, the commission's activities remain frozen.

Local organisations and rights groups warned that the stalemate is deepening tensions in the hills. They pointed to repeated communal attacks, forced evictions, and outsider settlements that have displaced both Jumma communities and Bengali settlers. Families have also lost land to settlement schemes, rubber plantations, military acquisitions, and the Kaptai Dam project.

They stressed that peace in the CHT is impossible without resolving land ownership. Urgent steps are needed to finalise the commission's rules, appoint a chairman, allocate sufficient resources, and raise public awareness about its work.

The CHT Regional Council, Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti, and civil society leaders accused successive governments of deliberately delaying the commission's work for political reasons. They warned that continued inaction will further entrench the crisis and leave one of the central promises of the Peace Accord unfulfilled.