CHT Hill Tracts Land Dispute Resolution Commission
Cabinet okays bill to curtail power of chairman
The new law proposed taking a decision based on opinion of the majority members of a meeting
UNB
The Cabinet yesterday approved the draft of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Land Dispute Resolution Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2016 curtailing the discretionary power of the commissions chairman in decision making, aiming to put an end to land disputes in the CHT, reports UNB.
The approval was given at the regular weekly meeting of the Cabinet held at Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam said according to the existing law, the decision of the Chairman has so far been considered as the decision of the Commission itself. But the new law proposed taking a decision based on opinion of the majority members of a meeting.
He said the draft law also modified the existing provision of quorum of the meeting of the commission.
The Cabinet Secretary said the amendment has been brought incorporating the proposals of resolution signed between the government and Parbatiya Chattagram Janasanghati Samity (PCJSS) at a meeting on January 9, 2015 at Chittagong Circuit House.
The amendment will make the CHT
land reform law more time-befitting one,
he said.
About the structure of the Commission, Shafiul Alam said a retired Judge of the Bangladesh Supreme Court will be the Chairman of the Commission while
chairman of the CHT Regional Council or his representative, chairmen of Zila Parishads of the three hill districts, three circle chiefs of the CHT and Divisional Commissioner of Chittagong will be the members of the Commission.
The new law proposed that the quorum of a meeting of the Commission will require attendance of at least three members and its Chairman instead of two members and Chairman as it is in the existing law.
Shafiul Alam said the draft law will come into effect through an ordinance considering its urgency as the Jatiya Sangsad session will not take place in the next two months.
The Cabinet also approved a proposal for scrapping the decision taken earlier in the Cabinet on formulating mission statement by the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs which was undertaken in 2000 in light of Beijing platform.
The Cabinet also gave nod to a proposal for cancelling the decision taken earlier in the Cabinet on the draft of the National E Services Bill, 2015.
The Cabinet Secretary said the government would frame a broad-based law to this end titled National Enterprise Architecture Act which will cover all the aspects, including the E Services. He said such law would be enacted following the laws of the developed countries like Australia.
Ministers and State Ministers and secretaries concerned were present.
