Bangladesh News

The government is thinking about forming a separate land commission to settle land disputes of indigenous people who do not reside in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).

Food and Disaster Management Minister Abdur Razzaque yesterday said the prime minister is considering the land commission.

“Settling their land disputes was an election manifesto of Awami League. To implement it, either a separate land commission will be formed or the CHT Land Commission will be entrusted with additional responsibilities,” he said.

Razzaque said this while addressing Wangala, a thanksgiving festival of the Garos, many of whom live in greater Mymensingh, at Banani Bidyaniketan organised by Wangala Celebration Committee in Dhaka.

He said he saw in his constituency how the indigenous people were deprived of their right to land when officials of the forest department planted trees in their ancestral land saying those were state-owned properties.

Garo leaders said there are many cases in which land grabbers took their ancestral land or bought it in exchange for a small sum of money, which was no less than cheating, since the Garos did not have documents of land.

“I assure you that we can establish their right to land by settling disputes so that they can live a better life,” the food minister said calling for building a society where people of all religions and ethnicity live harmoniously.

“We are human beings and that is our identity. No effort of vested quarters who want to use religion in politics will work,” Razzaque said, lauding the Garos’ tradition of thanksgiving to the Almighty.

The Garos believe fruits and roots collected from the jungles were their main food thousands of years ago and they did not have seeds to grow any food. One day they prayed to their god for seeds and the next day they found two types of paddy. They preserved them and started cultivating on the hills.

After harvest they did not consume the rice without thanking their god and celebrating the occasion. Wangala gradually became their major annual festival.

Hundred-and-five-year-old Garo leader Janik Nokrek said, “With the decrease in jhum cultivation on the hills and deterioration of the Garos’ financial condition, very few Garos can now celebrate the festival.”

But they try to keep the tradition alive by having a token celebration, he said.

Addressing the Garo people, Home Minister Sahara Khatun said she was very happy to attend the programme and that the government will gradually meet the demands made by the Garos.

Garo leaders demanded increasing indigenous people’s quota in universities and assisting them in building two hostels for students of their community in Dhaka.

Garo leaders Albert Mankin, Johnson Mree and Babul Nokrek, Banani Bidyaniketan Headmistress Umme Kulsum Nargis Begum also spoke.