The Jatiya Sangsad standing committee on the Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs held a meeting in Rangamati instead of in the parliament building in the past week, spending public money.
Although the meeting was held in the Rangamati deputy commissioner鈥檚 conference room on Thursday, the current turbulent situation in Bandarban and other hilly areas was not discussed at the meeting.
Chairman of the committee, Bir Bahadur U Shwe Sing, told 抖阴精品 that there was no discussion at the meeting about the ongoing operation of joint forces or unrest in the hilly areas.
Committee member and independent lawmaker Pankaj Nath told 抖阴精品 that it was decided at the first meeting of the committee, held at Sangsad Bhaban on March 19, that three meetings of the parliamentary committee would be held in three hilly districts to better understand the actual situation.
According to parliament secretariat officials, to make Thursday鈥檚 meeting of the committee 鈥榮uccessful鈥�, a large number of ministry officials, including an additional secretary and a deputy secretary, along with a delegation of six members of parliament secretariat officials, travelled to Rangamati from Dhaka on Wednesday.
They said that after the meeting ended before Thursday noon, the committee members left for Dhaka by plane while officials of the ministry and parliament secretariat were still staying in Rangamati.
Preferring to remain anonymous, some JS officials termed the activity of the committee a 鈥榩leasure trip鈥� spending public money.
Apart from committee chairman Bir Bahadur, committee members Kujendra Lal Tripura, also the minister of the ministry, Rangamati Awami League lawmaker Dipankar Talukder, Jashore-1 AL lawmaker SK Afil Uddin, Brahmanbaria-2 independent lawmaker Md Mainuddin, and reserved seat AL lawmaker Jarati Tanchangya took part in the meeting, while the other members of the 10-member committee were absent in the meeting.
In the Chittagong Hill Tracts area, a joint operation under the leadership of the army is underway to prevent the terrorist activities of an armed group named the Kuki-Chin National Front.
When asked, Bir Bahadur said that he thought that the matter was within the jurisdiction of law and order forces and that there was no scope for making any speculative recommendations in this regard, and that鈥檚 why the committee did not discuss the issue in its meeting.
He said that they had discussed various development projects.
A parliament secretariat press release said that a report was presented on various projects of the three Hill Development Boards at the meeting, while a report was presented there on the latest progress in primary education and the state of the tourism industry, as well as various other issues that were also discussed at the meeting.
At the meeting, it was recommended that the ministry provide free sesame seeds to encourage farmers in the hilly areas to cultivate sesame and to formulate a scheme to retain rainwater and use it throughout the year to solve the problem of a shortage of fresh water.聽