Newmai News Network
Aizawl | October 27
With one family that returned on October 26, as many as 190 families of Bru people from neighboring Tripura have so far returned to Mizoram in the ongoing final round of repatriation.
An official of the Mizoram Home department said on Sunday that five members belonging to one Bru family from Kaskau relief camp in Tripura have returned on Saturday on their own. The family will be resettled at Bajirungpa village in Mamit district, he said.
The official then said that 48 members belonging to 11 Bru families have also returned to Mizoram on their own on Friday.
According to him, many Bru families returned to Mizoram on their own after the Bru leaders served diktat to Bru families not to return to Mizoram.
Though many Bru families were willing to return to Mizoram and accepted the repatriation package decided by the meeting of joint monitoring group of Bru repatriation held on July 3 in New Delhi, they were afraid to return due to diktat from the Bru leaders, the official added.
On October 23, at least 81 people belonging to 20 Bru families from Hazacherra relief camp were repatriated to Mizoram and the families reached Lunglei safely on Saturday evening. With this, altogether 190 Bru families have so far returned to Mizoram in the ensuing repatriation that began from October 3.
As many as 4,410 Bru families were identified as bona fide residents of Mizoram during the identification conducted in July.
The Bru families at six relief camps in Tripura had staged rallies to protest against the ongoing repatriation, blocked Mizoram officials and submitted memorandums to the Centre on several occasions.
On October 21, the Brus had staged a protest rally and had written to Union Home Minister, Amit Shah and Special Secretary (Internal Security) in the Union Home ministr,y A.P. Maheshwari.
The Bru people had raised new demands stating that Dampa Tiger reserve in Mamit district of Mizoram should be arranged for settlement of the repatriated Bru families.
The Bru leaders also wrote to the North Tripura district deputy commissioner informing him that the Bru families in six relief camps had faced livelihood problem after the Centre stopped dolling out rations and cash assistance to the refugees from early October.
The Bru leaders also asked the Centre to resume distribution of rations and financial assistance to the Bru inmates.
Meanwhile, the ongoing repatriation is scheduled to be completed by November 30.
