"I'd rather resign than sit idle on the virtually stalled process of peace deal implementation and tardy development process," a meeting source quoted the disillusioned junior minister as saying.

Dewan also criticised a number of government initiatives including constitution of a recent committee on the CHT affairs with Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan as its chief.

Unfazed by objections by committee members, the junior minister expressed his anger over the recent Mohalchhari violence and said the district administration did not inform him of the incidents.

He said actualisation of all uplift projects in the CHT were tainted by corruption and expressed dissatisfaction at the stagnated issues of refugee repatriation, formation of the CHT taskforce and non-acceptability of the government initiatives by the hills people.

Most of the committee members felt embarrassed and others protested when the deputy minister aired his grievances.

BNP lawmaker Moazzem Hossain Alal protested the deputy minister's comments, saying: "It's the wrong platform to make such remarks. Raise the resignation issue at an appropriate forum."

Committee Chairman Mosharraf Hossain said the word 'resignation' was embarrassing for the meeting and expunged it from its proceedings, sources said.

Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan, BNP lawmaker and rival of Dewan, also wanted to speak, but the chairman refused him the opportunity.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, also in charge of the CHT affairs ministry and a member of the committee, did not attend the meeting.

The meeting was informed of the situation of the CHT task force on repatriation of refugees that fell virtually inoperative with the expiry of the chairman's term before the October 1, 2001 general elections.

The committee expressed its desire to hold meeting with different bodies in the Bandarban, Khagrachhari and Rangamati highlands including the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Shanghati Samity (PCJSS) and the United People's Democratic Front (UPDF) to ease tension.

It urged the local administration to step up the drive to rescue Rupam Mahajon whose abducted on August 24 sparked the Mahalchhari violence and asked the ministry to probe into the attacks.

The committee visited the area earlier this month and held the local administration's ignorance culpable for the violence.