DHAKA, Dec 12, 2017 (BSS) – Prime Minister’s International Affairs Adviser Dr Gowher Rizvi yesterday said the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord will be implemented fully by 2018.
“The government is sincere in implementing the CHT Peace Accord. Many progress for the implementation of the CHT Peace Treaty has already been made. But, we have to do more things for the implementation of the accord,” he told a discussion at Shilpakala Academy here.
The Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs organised the discussion on ‘Climate, hunger and migration’.
State Minister for Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs Bir Bahadur Ushewe Sing and Secretary of the ministry Nobo Bikrom Kishore Tripura, among others, spoke at the discussion.
Chief technical specialist of the Forestry of Strengthening Inclusive Development in CHT Project Dr Ram Sharma made a power-point presentation on mountains under pressure, climate, hunger and migration.
Speaking as the chief guest, Rizvi stressed the need for taking a special plan to expedite development process in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region.
As the CHT regional are geographically and culturally are different from plain-land, he said, the government should take mid- and long-term plans considering its own perspectives.
Highlighting the world perspective of development, Rizvi said: “The trend of development largely depends geological reality…as way of life, cultural pattern and geological nature are quite different from other areas of the country.”
That is why, the adviser said, it is an urgent to formulate a special policy for widening the development of CHT region.
At his presentation, Dr Ram Sharma said the hilly region of Bangladesh falls under the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region comprising fragile mountain ecosystem, including the CHT, a biodiversity hotspot where more than 40 of the country’s forests and mountains with key watersheds are located.