Prime Minister Khaleda Zia on October 13 directed officials concerned to provide rations to the CHT's 12,222 families of ethnic internal refugees from the PM's emergency relief fund. But sources said the fund is not big enough to provide the required amount of grains.

"We can provide only 7,500 tonnes of grains from the emergency fund, which is half the required amount. The rest has to be managed from somewhere else," said a high official of the CHT affairs ministry on condition of anonymity.

The annual requirement of rations for the refugees is some 15,300 tonnes of food grain.

Some 65,000 indigenous people of the 12,222 families received a weekly ration of five kg of rice for an adult and half that amount for a child until June when the government stopped the rations.

An order from the prime minister asked the CHT affairs ministry to find an alternative for their rehabilitation with funds from the Annual Development Programme.

The order however did not affect some 26,000 Bangalees living in cluster villages who continued to get their rations as before.

The indigenous internal refugees of the CHT region returned home from refugee camps in India's Tripura after the signing of the CHT peace treaty. A large number of families are still awaiting rehabilitation and depend on rations.

According to official statistics, 3,055 families out of the 12,222 are yet to get back their homesteads. The process of their rehabilitation was stalled after the four-party coalition government took office, alleged leaders of the internal refugees.

The prime minister however directed Deputy Minister for CHT Affairs Moni Swapan Dewan to take steps for implementation of the CHT peace treaty and resolve problems of the indigenous people.