News No. 56/2013, Friday, June 07,
2013
FOURTEEN minority Chak families have
been forced out of their lands by land grabbers in remote Badurjhiri Para under
Alikyong Mouza in Baishari Union of Nakyongchari Upazila in Bandarban district,
reports Suprobhat Bangladesh.
The evicted families are now living
in makeshift huts in three villages: Modyom Chak Para, Chak Headman Para and
Upper Chak Para, the paper in its today’s issue said.
The officer in charge of Baishari
Investigation Centre, upon hearing of the news of their eviction, undertook a
three-hour journey by foot through inaccessible hilly paths to visit Badurjhiri
Para village on 15 March.
However, the simple and easy-going
Chak families, who eke out a living on Jum cultivation, declined to register a
written complaint to him.
The Upazila administration, with the
help of elected representatives, local elders and political leaders, made
attempts to facilitate a convenient atmosphere for their return.
On 29 May, Md. Alamgir Hossain,
deputy secretary of the ministry of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs,
conducted an on-the-spot investigation of the matter.
On the other hand, the Deputy
Commissioner’s office in Bandarban took an initiative to provide the evicted
families with financial assistance, food stuffs and house building materials.
On 4 June, Nakyongchari Upazila
Executive Officer, Ahmed Jamil, at a meeting at Baishari Union Parishad
Auditorium handed each victim family a donation of Taka 6 thousand, 30 KGs of
husked rice and one bundle of corrugated iron sheet.
He assured the evicted Chak families
of all possible assistance for their return to their original village.
The Chak families requested the
government to continue food assistance until the end of the monsoon season.
They said, “We are now eking out a
living by working as day labourers after being forced out of our Jum lands. If
we get help from the government, we will go back to Badurjhiri.”
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