IT is indeed a shame that the Commission, set up to settle land disputes in the three hill districts of Chittagong has not done anything tangible since its formation three years ago. The prime objective of this commission was to begin a process whereby the disputed lands could be handed over to genuine owners within the shortest possible time, thus paving the way for peaceful co-existence between communities. In that sense, it is pivotal to the implementation of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) accord.

We think the decision of the parliamentary standing committee on CHT affairs ministry to convene an emergency meeting to identify the reasons behind the virtual nonfunctioning of the land commission couldn't have come a day later. Hopefully, the right answers would be found to the state of hibernation the commission finds itself in. These are not only important for the sake of peace but also for safeguarding the tribal rights. Resolving the land disputes is directly linked to preparing an authentic voters' list for the region. The delay in holding local elections for lack of an acceptable voter-list is only putting off proper representation of both tribal and non-tribal communities on the councils.

We understand the complexity of the issue of land disputes, especially when Bengali settlers, returnee tribal refugees from India and the rest of the tribal community have conflicting claims to ownership in different places. In some cases, both parties have papers to show while in others, there are no documents at all to claim ownership. So, the issue is basically land records and the ownership cannot be authentically documented to the satisfaction of all parties without having a comprehensive land survey done in the first place. The survey process has to be speedily completed now.

Three years was a long enough time for the commission to show some positive results in terms of having most of the land disputes settled. We simply do not understand why, as the parliamentary standing committee said in a statement, the commission failed to do so. The people of the hill districts still have high hopes from the peace accord. Though a significant part of the accord has yet to materialise, setting up of the Land Commission was, in their eyes, something that could unlock the creative potential of the hill tracts people by settling their land rights once and for all. Their hopes should not be dashed.