Hundreds of hill people held a road march on a 45km stretch at Ruma in Bandarban on Tuesday demanding an end to government move of acquisition of 9,585 acres of land to expand military garrison and to set up a Border Guard Bangladesh camp.
The hill people began the march, under the banner of Ruma Bhumi Rakkha Andolan, before sunrise and walked down 45 kilometres of the hilly road towards the district headquarters shouting slogans against the move.
They reached the district
headquarters about 4:00pm and submitted a memorandum addressed to the prime minister to the deputy commissioner.
Copies of the memorandum were also sent to the land minister, CHT affairs minister and the local lawmaker Bir Bahadur.
Many of the marchers fell sick in the scorching heat. After submission of the memorandum, the marchers held a rally in front of the Bandarban Press Club.
The deputy commissioner, Mijanur Rahman, said that he had received the memorandum from the marchers. 'They have submitted a memorandum to me. The government has plans to expand the cantonment but no
step has as yet been taken. But these people have given it a political hype,' he said.
'Such processions take place very often elsewhere in Bangladesh but they remain unnoticed. Why are you journalists are so interested about every minor incident in the hills,' he said.
Hill people of four mauzas in Ruma have been rallying since 2008. They have stopped celebrating their largest festival in protest at the armed forces' move to acquire their land, including homesteads pwhere they have been living for at least five generations.
Moves by the Bangladesh Army to expand the Ruma cantonment by acquiring more 9,560 acres of land at Gelenga, Pantola and Singhum mauzas and Bangladesh Guards Bangladesh's plan to set up a camp by acquiring 25 acres of land at Poli mauza near the Ruma police station panicked the hill people.
The people said that they would have no scope to appeal if the land was acquired by the armed forces and there would be no rehabilitation.
The headmen of the Singhum and Gelenga mauzas said that they along with the karbaris were called in to the Ruma cantonment on October 24 and 31, 2010 and were told to produce their land documents.
Numlai Mro, headman of the Pantola mzuza, said that the officials said they would acquire 9,560 acres of land for the expansion of the Ruma garrison. 'They just called us in and asked us to meet them with land documents. No letter was issued seeking opinion of the headmen.'
Ching Sha Aong Marma, headman of the Poli mauza, said that the Border Guard Bangladesh (formerly Bangladesh Rifles) was planning to acquire 25 acres of land near the Ruma police station. He said that such an acquisition would make 50 families landless.
The Ruma upazila chairman, Aong Thowai Ching Marma, said that the move for the acquisition of 9,560 acres of land had been around since 1977 after the establishment of the Ruma cantonment in 1974 by displacing a Marma village.
'During the immediate-past emergency rule in 2007–2008, there were also strong moves to acquire the land and the headmen and karbaris were threatened. Last time, the headmen and karbaris were called in to the cantonment but we are yet get anything in writing,' he said.
New Age tried to get the versions of the armed forces and has repeatedly contacted the Inter Services Public Relations since December 2010. But there was no reply in this regard.
Source: New Age
No comments:
Post a Comment