119 army camps withdrawn from CHT: PM

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Wednesday said that 119 military camps out of the 232 have already been withdrawn and the rest to be pulled out in phases to implement Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Treaty.
‘There is a plan to pull out the deployed army in time through withdrawing the temporary camps after developing the infrastructure,’ the prime minister said in parliament replying to a question from independent
lawmaker Ushatan Talukder. As per the Treaty, she said, there is a clause to put all temporary camps under six garrisons– Dighinala, Khagrachhari, Rangamati, Bandarban, Ruma and Alikadam. ‘Infrastructure development is going on for it and 997 acres land acquisition process for Ruma garrison is going on,’ she added.
She said that her government had already implemented 48 clauses out of 72 clauses of CHT Treaty and working sincerely to implement rest of the clauses.
‘48 clauses have already been implemented fully. 15 clauses have been implemented partially and the nine are under implementation,’ she added.
She said that her government had taken different programmes including those in communication and education sectors as part of implementation of the treaty signed on December 2, 1997.
She criticised the previous BNP-led alliance government for slowing down implementation process after they came to power in 2001. She said that the government took all-out steps to implement the CHT Treaty after the surrender of arms by the Janasanghati Parishad and other groups on February 10, 1998.
‘The Awami League government and the Janasanghati Samity signed the treaty through discussion and we did not involve any foreign force or others,’ she said.
She said that her government had treated the problem as a political one and observed that it was not possible to solve it militarily.
She said that five Land Commissions have been established as of 1999 and a law titled ‘Land Dispute Resolution Commission Act- 2001’ has been enacted. She also mentioned that considering the objections by the Regional Council, an amendment to the Law is now under process after getting the approval from the Cabinet.
She elaborately described the projects and programmes of the government to develop the CHT area since signing of the CHT Treaty.

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