Agartala: More than 30,000 displaced Reang/Bru tribal people from neighbouring Mizoram, sheltered in seven camps in North Tripura district, on Tuesday demanded a status like Kashmiri Pandits or Tamil refugees, for the better living conditions.
Mizo Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF), the only organisation of the inmates submitted a 13-point charter of demands including the status like Kashmiri Pandits or Tamil refugees to a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) delegation led by its Additional Secretary Rajib Gauba when it visited the camps, MBDPF general secretary Bruno Mesa told PTI over phone.
Mesa said the inmates were living in “inhuman” conditions for the last 17 years since they trickled into the camps following ethnic clashes with the Mizos. “There is no school for the children. Though a few schools were being run by some NGOs, they closed down due to funds crunch. There is hardly any health care provision for the inmates. There is no toilet and bathrooms and our people bathe in small streams and face acute drinking water shortage. Infant mortality is high because there is no vaccine or nutrition for them,” Mesa alleged.
He said, since repatriation would not be completed shortly, the living condition of the camp inmates should be improved and they should be given proper healthcare and opportunity for education.
For a permanent solution, the Bru people should be repatriated in their homeland in Mizoram with adequate land, compensation and proper security, Mesa said.
“We have demanded setting up of cluster of villages for our repatriation. There should be at least grouping of 500 families in a cluster with all modern amenities for education, health care and livelihood. We have also demanded security from the onslaught of the Mizos, by central paramilitary forces,” he added.
Swapan Saha, Tripura’s relief and revenue department secretary, told IANS that the central team, also comprising officials of the human resource development ministry, social justice and empowerment ministry, Tripura government and representatives of three NGOs from New Delhi, West Bengal and Assam, will submit its report to the union home ministry and the Tripura High Court by Sep 12.
The central team was constituted following a directive from the Tripura High Court, which passed an order June 24 after a lawyer filed a petition on the alleged miserable conditions of the refugees and the camps they are living in.
“The central team would oversee the sanitation, health, educational and other facilities there,” Saha added.
Meanwhile, Tripura Governor Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya visited the refugee camps Sunday and told them that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent him to see the conditions of the displaced people.
“Do not be upset, good days are ahead for you. Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre would resolve all the problems of all of you,” the governor told the refugees while addressing gatherings of migrants in different camps.
Refugee leader and Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF) general secretary Bruno Mesha submitted a memorandum to the governor.
The memorandum contains 10 demands which included providing all facilities to the refugees like Kashmiri Pandits and Tamil refugees, allotment of lands to all the repatriated tribals, creation of model villages in Reang tribals’ inhabited areas, ensure better security and sanitation, health and education to the tribals in Mizoram.
Acharya, who is the governor of Nagaland with additional charge of Tripura, promised the refugees to take up their matter with the central government.
The Mizoram government recently asked the union home ministry to take up with the Election Commission the issue of deleting from the electoral lists the names of those refugees, who are unwilling to leave Tripura camps and return to Mizoram.
“Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla earlier this month held a meeting with Home Secretary Anil Goswami in New Delhi and requested him to take action over deleting the names of those refugees who are not willing to return to Mizoram,” an official of the Mizoram government told IANS in Aizawl.
“Lal Thanhawla apprised Goswami that while the state government has done its best to take back the refugees from Tripura camps, the state government’s efforts have often been opposed by a section of refugee leaders,” the official said.
The Tripura government has been repeatedly asking the central government to take steps to repatriate the 35,000 tribal refugees to Mizoram.
Only about 5,000 Reang tribal refugees have returned to their homes in the past three-and-a-half years. (PTI) (With inputs from IANS)