Govt to take steps to check CHT disasters: Gowher Rizvi

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DHAKA, Aug 22, 2017 (BSS)- Prime Minister’s International Affairs Advisor Dr Gowher Rizvi today said the people of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) have been facing natural and man-made disasters due to unrealistic steps taken by the government of the post-peace accord regime.

“The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will take immediate measures to check all sorts of disaster including landslide and will do everything for the well-being of the CHT people,” he said at a seminar on “Landslides in CHT-Causes and Prevention” in CIRDAP auditorium here.

Secretary of the CHT Affairs Ministry Nabo Bikram Kishore Tripura chaired the seminar while State Minister for CHT Affairs Bir Bahadur Ushe Sing, Washaton Talukder, MP, and Begum Firoza Begum Chinu, MP, were present as special guests.

Dr Gowher said the government has already handed over most of the government departments under to district councils in line with the CHT Peace Accord signed on December 2 in 1997.

He also sought cooperation from all government and non-government sectors to prevent such disasters like landslide.

State Minister for CHT Affairs Ministry Bir Bahadur Ushe Sing said that the ministry will frame a work strategy to prevent landslide or other man-made disasters summarizing the recommendations of the seminar. He also emphasized maintaining independent strategy for the development of the CHT region.

Prof Dr M Shamsul Islam of the Geography and Environmental Science Department of Dhaka University, Prof Samjwal Ratan Bajracharya, Geologist and Remote Sensing Specialist of ICIMOD, and Lieutenant Colonel (Retd) Parimal Bikash Chakma presented key-note papers at the seminar.

The discussants identified hill cutting, deforestation, unplanned housing and drainage system, unplanned Jum cultivation and effects of climate change as the major factors for natural and man-made disasters like landslide in the CHT areas.

Chairman of the CHT Land Commission Justice Anwarul Haque Chowdhury, Chairmen of Rangamati and Kharachhari District Councils, Deputy Commissioners and Police Supers of the three CHT districts and over 150 participants from home and abroad were present at the seminar.