At present the government has been providing rations to 27,000 Bengali- speaking families who live in cluster villages since 1978 when they were taken in the hills as transmigrators.

Besides Bengali-speaking people, the government is also providing ration to 12,200 indigenous families who came back from Tripura after the CHT peace accord in 1997 that ended two-decade-long bush war in the hills.

"It has not been decided yet whether to provide ration to new settlers, but a proposal to this effect is under consideration, " said Moni Swapan Dewan, deputy minister of CHT Affairs.

"We are reviewing whether the number of Bengali-speaking families has increased to that level or whether the government is going to feed them," he added.

Wadud Bhuiyan, lawmaker from Khagrachhari and chairman of CHT Development Board, said the numbers of Bengali- speaking people living in cluster villages has increased many folds over the years.

"They are really in bad situation. But so far I know the government has not taken such decision yet. Some quarters of the government are thinking that to

avoid any untoward situation in the hills, " he added.

It is alleged that following the peace accord, Bengali-speaking people have been moving into highlands and taking shelter in the government-supported cluster villages.

Sources said the government has a plan to settle several thousand Bengali- speaking people at Kassalong reserve forest and by the side of the newly-built Baghaihat-Sajek road that leads to the border of Mizoram State of India.

When asked, Wadud Bhuiyan admitted that some Bengali-speaking families started making houses beside the Sajek road, but the army did not allow them on safety ground.

Baghaihat-Sajek road has been built through dense Kassalong reserve forest violating the Forest Act of 1927 and Bangladesh Forest (Amendment) Act 2000.

According to the laws, construction of any structures and human intervention creating threats to the natural forest is totally prohibited.

An indigenous leader said if the settlement at Kassalong reserve forest is build up, the oldest virgin natural forest in CHT might be destroyed completely.

The government should implement the peace accord in stead of doing that," said Rupayan Dewan, vice-president of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity (PCJSS) and member of CHT regional council.

He also protested the government move for providing rations to more Bengali-speaking people.