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Development at hills down at heel

PINAKI ROY, back from CHT
No significant development has taken place in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) since the peace pact was signed more than five years ago.
Donors took some development initiatives following the signing of the agreement, but no project has been implemented so far. Different government agencies, including the CHT Development Board, are running some service-oriented organisations like schools and hospitals and helping refugees. But that could not change the overall standard of living in the region.
"In most cases, development strategies are formulated by the plain land people. But they are not capable of realising or working out the real needs of the tribal people," said a tribal government official.
On February16, 2001, three foreign nationals were abducted, while they were working on a road development project funded by the Danish government. All the donor agencies suspended their development schemes after the incident.
Last year, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and government officials visited the CHT to assess whether the uplift efforts could resume. The team submitted a report titled "Donor Review of the CHT: Security Assessment." It stated that all the upazila of the CHT were riskfree to run development programmes. Some of the UNDP project proposals are now lying with the finance ministry for approval.
"The UNDP is yet to start any development work in the CHT. But some projects are in the pipeline," Lisa Hieler, UNDP communication officer, said.
The government is running some of the projects through the CHT Development Board, the CHT Affairs Ministry and the Regional Council. From 1976 to 2002, the board implemented 1,090 development schemes in agriculture, education, industry, communication, sports, culture and social welfare sectors.
But the government has slashed the uplift fund for the region significantly this year. It allocated Tk 39.15 crore, down from about Tk 61.77 crore last year.
The board has spent a huge amount of money in the region, but there is so far no sign of significant development in the CHT, said Jotirindra Bodhipriya Larma, chairman of CHT Regional Council and chairman of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity, at a press conference in Dhaka recently.
During a visit to the three hill districts, it was learned that people living in the hills are not happy, as the peace treaty did not bring any qualitative change to their lives. Now the government is providing the poorest of the people with food grains as ration. It is giving the Hill District Council 95,000 tonnes of food grains and Tk 1 crore annually through the CHT ministry.
More than 100 NGOs have started environment, education and awareness building projects in the CHT.
The government allocated five acres of land to some landless tribal families in Bandarban town in the 1980s. But within two decades, they have sold out the land to settlers, as
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employment opportunity is very limited in the region.
"Backward and poor hill people cannot surge ahead with the development maintaining the pace of Bangali settlers. All these new buildings and infrastructures are not helping to boost their confidence, " said a tribal journalist in Bandarban.
"They need bread before learning about sanitary latrines," he said.
However, some hill people think that the development plan is on the right track.
Kumar Nandit Roy, a former UNDP official and a member of the Chakma royal family in Rangamati, said, "Development means a change for the better. There was a two-decade long insurgency in the CHT. So it will take time for the development efforts to produce tangible results. I think the local people are being benefited by development projects."