Bengalis allege discrimination in new CHT Development Board advisory panel

PARBATTA NEWS REPORT

The newly formed advisory committee of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Development Board has sparked criticism for excluding representatives from the Bengali community, which makes up more than half of the population in the region.

On August 13, the Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs issued a letter appointing nine members to the committee. Of these, eight are non-Bengalis from the hill districts, while the only Bengali member is a government officer who is not a resident of the area.

The CHT Development Board was established in 1976 as a separate government body to carry out development initiatives in the region. Each year, the government channels hundreds of crores of taka through the board for local projects. Over time, however, the board has faced allegations of ethnic bias in implementing its programmes. Following the anti-discrimination movement of 2024, many in the hill tracts had hoped such practices would end, but the latest committee formation has revived concerns of exclusion.

According to the appointments made under the Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board Act, 2014, the committee includes three Union Parishad chairmen, three headmen, and three representatives from government or non-government institutions. They are Mogban Union Parishad chairman Pushpa Ranjan Chakma of Rangamati, Kamalchhari Union Parishad chairman Sunil Chakma of Khagrachhari, and Suwalak Union Parishad chairman Ukynu Marma of Bandarban; Headman Bishwajit Chakma of Rupkari Mouza in Baghaichhari, Rangamati, Headman Uksain Chowdhury of Golbari Mouza in Khagrachhari Sadar, and Headman T. Mong Pru of Chambi Mouza in Lama, Bandarban; and, from institutional representation, Nasim Haider, Additional Director of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Rangamati, Jibon Roaza, Executive Engineer of the Khagrachhari Hill District Council, and Anjulika Khisa, retired headmistress of Rangamati Government Girls’ High School.

This means eight out of nine members are non-Bengalis from the hill districts. The only Bengali, government officer Nasim Haider, does not belong to the area. No hill Bengali representative has been included.

The exclusion has drawn sharp reactions locally, as Bengalis account for more than 50 percent of the population across the three hill districts. Critics argue that their elected representatives, headmen, or officials should have been represented on the advisory committee.

Prominent writer and journalist Syed Ibne Rahmat wrote on his Facebook page that the advisory body was formed with eight non-Bengali members from the hill tracts and only one Bengali who is a government officer and not a local resident. He noted that the role of the committee is to advise the board in preparing and implementing development projects and questioned whether the board was intended only for non-Bengalis. He asked why no representative of the Bengali community, despite constituting the majority of the local population, had been included, and suggested that those who approved the appointments either did not believe in the presence of Bengalis in the hills or wanted to erase it altogether.

Rangamati Press Club General Secretary Anwar Al Haque also voiced his concerns, saying that since more than half of the population in the CHT are Bengalis, such discrimination in forming the advisory committee could not be accepted. He added that a more balanced committee should have been created in the national interest.

The letter appointing the members was signed by Mohammad Nahid Islam, Deputy Secretary of the Administration-1 Branch of the ministry. When asked about the exclusion of Bengalis, he said he was not responsible for the appointments and advised that queries be directed to higher authorities.

Efforts to reach Major General (retd) Anup Kumar Chakma, Chairman of the CHT Development Board, and Supradeep Chakma, Adviser to the Ministry of CHT Affairs, were unsuccessful as both did not respond to repeated phone calls.