Socio-economic Baseline Survey of Chittagong Hill Tracts - chtdf

HDRCSocio-economic Baseline Survey of Chittagong Hill Tracts4The dam, till today, is regarded as a massive tragedy in the CHT. It has disintegrated largeproportion of IP families by scattering them around the subcontinent and Burma on one hand,and destroyed the agro-based economy of the region on the other. Although the dam lit allmajor cities in East Pakistan with electricity, it left the people in CHT uprooted and in sheerdespair and dismay. It is also to be noted that most of the upazilas (sub-districts) on theKaptai Lake have been brought under electrification only over 40 years after the constructionof the power generation project.During the forty years following construction of the power generation project, manysignificant political changes took place in CHT. Most significant event among them is thatthe people of the then East Pakistan (Bangalees and other Indigenous Peoples) fought forregional autonomy of the then eastern part of Pakistan. The struggle reached to itsculmination in 1971, and ended up by the glorious war of liberation against Pakistan.Likewise in other places, majority people living in CHT (both IPs and Bangalees) supportedthe struggle of people living in the then East Pakistan, and have participated in the LiberationWar of Bangladesh.In 1972, an 18-member delegation of the CHT people led by Manabendra Narayan Larma,the then member of the Constituent Assembly and a veteran fighter of the Liberation War,submitted a memorandum demanded constitutional recognition of the indigenous peoples’groups living in the CHT and regional autonomy for protection of their distinct ethnic andcultural identity to the first Prime Minister of Bangladesh Bangabandhu Sheikh MujiburRahman. 10 . However, neither the recognition of the different indigenous peoples groups norregional autonomy has got recognition and/or reflection in the Constitution of the People’sRepublic of Bangladesh 11 . It is to be noted further that immediately after Bangladesh attainedits liberation, some armed groups of Bangalees from the neighbouring districts, initiatedforceful grabbing of some lands traditionally owned by the indigenous people. Theconstitutional non-recognition and/or denial of regional autonomy coupled with incidences ofland-grabbing have created massive resentment among the indigenous population. Differentpolitical groups in favor of demands like regional autonomy and constitutional recognition ofindigenous peoples and their rights have been formed after enactment of the Constitution in1972 (e.g., Jana Sanghati Samity, Mukti Parishad etc.).The overall law and order situation had deteriorated all over Bangladesh since 1973, in whichthe armed collaborators and some of the extremist left groups (irrespective of their rolesduring the War of Liberation), who reorganized themselves in the underground, had aproactive role. The then government launched massive combing operations all over thecountry, and the same in CHT has been further intensified compared to rest of the country asthe security forces had also been assigned to deal with political groups who favored populardemands of the IPs. As a result, many innocent IPs involved with neither anti-state norextremist activities have been harassed and/or taken into custody. The latter had furtherfueled resentment of the IPs. However, in early 1975, the Government took some measuresand released a large number of people in CHT. However, the combing operation was notdiscontinued, and the massive discontent kept continuing.10 Shelley 1992 , Ali 199311 Roy RCK 1996