Kamalanagar 29 July, 2016: The Monsoon Session of Chakma Autonomous District Council which started on 25th of this month concluded today over three sittings. This session will be one of the most productive with five Bills having passed. In the first sitting the bills were tabled and the session was adjourned till 28th July 2016.

The CADC (Money Lending & Control) Regulation, 2016, the CADC (Employees Pension Fund) Rules, 2016 and the CADC (Recruitment) Rules, 2016 were introduced by the House Leader Dg. Kali Kumar Tongchangya. The first two were introduced in the previous Session which were referred to Select Committees for further study. The bills have been re-introduced in this Session after necessary modification by the Select Committees.

Dg. Amarsmriti Chakma, Executive Member, i/c Law & Judicial Department re-introduced the CADC (Administration of Justice) Rules, 2016. This bill was also referred to a Select Committee after it was introduced in the previous Session.
The CADC (Village Council) (Amendment) Act, 2016 was introduced by Dg. Purnamuni Chakma, Executive Member i/c Local Administration Department.

The second sitting discussed and passed the CADC (Village Council) (Amendment) Act, 2016, the CADC (Administration of Justice) Rules, 2016 and the CADC (Employees Pension Fund) Rules, 2016. The rest of the bills were discussed and passed in the third sitting.

The CADC (Money Lending & Control) Regulation, 2016 will legalise the money lending business within CADC and provide for a regulated transaction. It has been experienced that the business has grown rampantly and very often the poor gets exploited.

The CADC (Employees Pension Fund) Rules, 2016 is a long felt need. It was in 2003 by an Executive Committee notification the Pension Contribution Fund was conceived in order to address the growing pension bill with increasing numbers of pensioners. Since then, the employees have been contributing 3% of their basic pay. The urgency to provide a rule for the scheme has grown with suspicion being raised from time to time against alleged misuse of the fund.

The drafting of the CADC (Recruitment) Rules, 2016 was initiated following the agitation in 2015 by Chakma NGOs in Kamalanagar against the alleged illegal appointments made by CADC which led to the killing of a student in police firing. A drafting committee of five members was constituted which has given a final shape to the draft rule. The Rule makes provision for recruitment to services under CADC through advertisement. It also provides for a Recruitment Board comprising of three officers. With this Rule coming into force the Lai, Mara and Chakma District Councils (Group A, B, C, D posts) Recruitment Rules, 1992 shall stand repealed.

The CADC (Administration of Justice) Rules, 2016 is a much needed rule which is long overdue. So far judicial cases were managed under the archaic Pawi-Lakher Autonomous Region (Administration of Justice) Rules, 1954. Judiciary being one of the three principal organs besides the Executive and the Legislative, this is very significant. Judicial activism is very low-key in CADC. The awareness level of the citizens about their rights and privileges get measured by the rate of Judicial activism. Hopefully the new Rule will encourage more people to seek judicial recourse for justice.

The CADC (Village Council) (Amendment) Act, 2016 is necessitated due to the inadequacy of the CADC (Village Council) (Amendment) Act, 2011 to address a few issues that has been experienced in the last CADC Village Council General Election. The existing Act has no provision for a caretaker authority or administrator for the intervening period before fresh election can be held in the event of a village council suspended or dissolved. It also do not specify in clear terms with regards to the time of appointment of the Village Council Nominated Members. Consequently, it so happened that just after the General Election to the Village Councils the Nominated Members were appointed before the Executive Committee of the Village Councils got formed enabling minority Village Council Members take undue advantage by causing nomination of Members to their advantage. Thus, undermining the mandate of the people in many village councils. Ultimately, the parties who got a bad deal due to the anomaly of the said clause approached the court with election petition. The new amendment also seek to do away with the requirement of laying down the report of a Village Council Boundary Commission before a Council Session to settle a village boundary dispute. The report will be examined by the Executive Committee henceforth and take decision.