Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS) declares dawn to dusk bazaar-boycotting program in Rangamati district on 29 July 2015 as part of non-cooperation movement and urges people to make the bazaar-market boycotting program a success to succeed the on-going non-cooperation movement in demand of implementation of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Accord.
In a leaflet, PCJSS says that the non-cooperative movement of Jumma people has been going on since 1 May 2015 directing to forge ahead the implementation process of the CHT Accord and to resist and resolute the anti-accord and anti-Jumma-interest designs of the government, as per the declaration of PCJSS pronounced on 29 November 2014 in a press conference organized on the occasion of 17th Anniversary of the CHT Accord.
PCJSS also mentions that though passing long 18 years after signing the CHT Accord, for not having the core issues of the Accord implemented, especially, preservation of Jumma-inhabited characteristics of the region, putting the special administrative system with CHT Regional Council and the three Hill District Councils into effect, resolution of land disputes, withdrawal of all the temporary camps including the ‘Operation Uttoran’, rehabilitation of returnee Jumma refugees and the internally displaced Jumma refugees, cancellation of leases of lands given non-residents, appointment of the permanent residents of hill district in all the jobs inside CHT, amendment to all the concerned laws including the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regulation 1900, rehabilitation of the Bengali settlers outside CHT with dignity, etc. the situation in CHT is gradually heading from bad to worse.
One of the core issues of CHT crisis is the land dispute. Though the decision of bringing an amendment to the contravening provisions of CHT Land Dispute Resolution Commission Act 2001 was adopted, the government has been playing dilly-dally tactics as before. On 9 January 2015, in a talk held at Chittagong circuit house with Dr. Gawher Rizvi, Advisor to the Prime Minister; Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma, Chairman, CHT Regional Council and Naba Bikram Kishore Tripura, Secretary of Ministry of CHT Affairs, the 13-point amendment proposal of the said act was adopted and it was also decided to get the Act amended as per the 13-point proposal during the then running winter session of the Parliament. Later on, the 13-point amendment proposal was also re-adopted in the CHT Accord Implementation Committee meeting held on 20 January 2015. But in later days, the Act was not amended in the house though the winter session and budget session ended.
Thus the government, keeping the implementation process of CHT Accord aside and in uncertainty, and on the contrary, has been undertaking and implementing anti-accord and anti-Jumma-interest programs one after another. Instead of ensuring rights of the Jumma people to land and ownership as per the Accord and law, the government, in the names of – establishment of BGB camps, tourism centers, reserve forests and through giving leases in the name of rubber plantation and horticulture to the business persons, influential bureaucrats and political figures, thousand acres of Jum lands lying under traditional collective ownership of the Jumma people and the lands under mouza system are being forcibly occupied. The government, instead of resolution of land disputes, is making the land crisis more complicated. Despite vehement opposition of the hill people, the implementing process of establishing Medical College project under army and police guard is undergoing while trampling the public opinion. In this way, the government has been vigorously implementing the task of attrition of Jumma people racially through the adoption of programs that stand counter to the Accord and interest of the Jumma people.
Under this ground reality, PCJSS has obliged to embark upon non-cooperation movement following democratic means for the sake of preservation of national entity of the Jumma people and the territorial entity of dwelling land aiming at the fullest implementation of the CHT Accord ? the charter of rights of the CHT people including the Jumma people. As part of the on-going non-cooperation movement and overall with a view to resisting and ensuring resolution to the anti-accord and anti-Jumma-interest design, the program of boycotting all markets and bazaars under Rangamati Hill District on Wednesday, 29 July 2015 with effect from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. has been undertaken. With a view to making the program a success, PCJSS gives an open-hearted call to the hill people of all walks of life to abstain from going to the markets and bazaars under Rangamati Hill District, buying and selling and keeping the shops open (with exception to the emergency dispensaries and buying and selling of medicines) on that day for the given space of time. To make the program a success on Wednesday, the 29 July, do?
• boycott the markets and bazaars and the shops of all sorts;
• Keep all the shops closed in the markets and bazaars and in lanes and by-lanes; and
• Abstain from buying and selling of all forms.