The Press Release dated 25 March 2014 signed by Mangal Kumar Chakma, Secretary, Information and Publicity Department of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS) expresses strong protestation over the government initiative to bring in an amendment to the Hill District Council Act, 1989 (Amended in 1998) recently, in a bid to increase in the number of Hill District Council members instead of holding elections in accordance with the obligatory provision as laid down in the Act.
The press release mentioned that no initiative has ever been taken to hold elections in the three hill districts councils after signing the CHT Accord and hence, the Hill District Councils have remained functional as interim councils. To this end, no effective initiative has also been undertaken to formulate Electoral Roll for CHT and the Election Rules for Chairman and Members of Hill District Councils. The ruling parties rotationally coming to power have already institutionalized an undemocratic culture by nominating chairman and members of the Hill District Councils from among their party members and this has been being practiced for the years together since formation of the councils. Indeed, the 5-member interim Council does not have any accountability to the peoples for their duties and responsibilities. Consequently, these Councils have become rehabilitation centers for the partisan members and dens of corruptions as well. But the ironical fact is that instead of undertaking necessary measures for holding elections in these Interim-Councils, the government, just to increase the number of council members from 5 to 11, placed the three Draft Bills titled: Rangamati Hill District Council (Amendment) Act, 2014, Khagrachari Hill District Council(Amendment) Act, 2014 and Bandarban Hill District Council (Amendment) Act, 2014 on 10 March 2014, and got them approved in the cabinet meeting on the plea of various communities’ participation in the Council and easing the performance of their duties and responsibilities.
PCJSS considers the move made by the government to have been a mean attempt to sideline the HDC elections in continuation to earlier tradition and thereby to obstruct the implementation process of the Accord in a tactful manner. But it is fact that there cannot be any alternative to formation of a strong Hill District Council, to ensure representation of all communities and above all, to present a people-oriented, accountable and corruption-free council. Be whatever big is the size of interim Hill District Council that is constituted of nominated members, with that a powerful and accountable council can never be formed or thereby it cannot be ensured that the council is really represented by all the community peoples as referred to the Act. If the size of interim Hill District Councils is enhanced, nothing but the number of opportunists and individuals of vested interest will be increased only. PCJSS considers that on the contrary, this will result in cropping up of a fresh problem in CHT.
Contextually, it is also to mention worthy that despite reiteration of the Awami League government on implementation of the Accord in its election manifesto circulated ahead of 10th National Parliamentary Election held on 5 January 2014, yet the government has had no initiative to that direction. The government, though placed the CHT Land Dispute Resolution Commission (Amendment) Act Bill 2013 during the last phase of the preceding parliamentary session (2009-2013), let the Bill remain hanging with the Parliamentary Committee. On the other hand, the issue of devolution of subjects fallen due to be transferred to HDCs as resolved in the meeting held by the then State Minister Dipankar Talukder and Gowhar Rizvi, Adviser to the Prime Minister on International Affairs with the Secretaries of various Ministries on 01-03 July 2013, has been left un-effective till date. Thus the government, instead of taking effective measures to settle down the hanging issues in implementing the Accord, on the contrary, has taken a u-turn with its undemocratic and anti-accord designs by violating the existing laws of Hill District Council. PCJSS view this as a manifestation of passing time and lacking of goodwill in implementing the CHT Accord.
In this circumstance, PCJSS strongly demands for cancellation of the initiative for bringing amendment to the CHT Hill District Council Acts and in accordance with the CHT Accord, to hold elections with immediate effect for CHTRC and HDCs and to this end, to formulate Election Rules for Chairman and Members of Hill District Councils and Electoral Rolls Act with only the permanent residents.