The land commission formed in 1999, a little more than two years after the signing of the CHT peace accord between the national committee and the then PCJSS to settle land disputes in the hill districts, remains a non-starter even to this day.

Settlement of land rights once and for all has been an agenda central to the very question of establishing durable peace based on harmonious co-existence between communities in the Hill Tracts region. This has gone by default for more than half a decade since the inception of what tragically remains a commission headed by a retired justice, but otherwise non-functional without being manned. In other words, the peace accord stands unimplemented against the yardstick of a vital obligation embodied in it.

The commission couldn't deliver the goods within its original three-year tenure which is why it had to be extended twice with the attendant implications that the term of the chairman has been renewed together with the extension of tenures of other posts almost all of which are yet to be filled. The matter going to the Prime Minister, she directed the concerned ministry to recruit the necessary manpower to make the commission functional. Accordingly, the CHT affairs ministry asked the land ministry to have the staff appointed against the sanctioned posts. Lately, the parliamentary standing committee on CHT affairs at a meeting held on Thursday blamed the land and establishment ministries for failing to implement the Prime Minister's directive on recruitment of staff to make the commission operational.

Some heads should roll with steps taken promptly to infuse life into the commission so that it can go about its business in earnest. Let's not forget, no land-related complaint has yet been lodged with the body. Its credibility is on the line. We have lost enough time in a bureaucratic wrangling over staffing the commission. How long before it becomes truly equipped to handle the substantive land dispute issues?