New Delhi: The Centre on Friday told the Supreme Court that it has taken “positive steps” including releasing the funds to ensure proper rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced Reang tribes who were forced to leave their villages in Mizoram and migrate to Tripura.
“We have taken some positive steps to ensure proper rehabilitation of the tribal people,” Additional Solicitor General N K Kaul, appearing for the Ministry of Home Affairs, told the social justice bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit.
The ASG said the Centre has been working closely with Mizoram and Tripura governments and funds have been allocated to them for this purpose.
The bench took serious note of the submission of the counsel for the NGO, which had filed the PIL on the issue, that no substantial progress has been made and said, “we are trying to do something for the future and you are creating hurdles. You should help in the process.” The bench has now posted the matter for hearing in July.
Earlier, the apex court had expressed its displeasure over the tardy progress made by the Centre in the last ten years on the rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced Reang tribes.
It had perused the material placed before it and said there were few meetings and counted them year wise since 2010 to 2013.
The bench was annoyed that merely a sum of Rs one lakh each was spent on refugees in the last 15 years.
The bench was hearing the PILs filed in 2005 by Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and another in 2007 by Asian Indigenous & Tribal People’s, both voluntary organisation working for the welfare of the tribals.
Among the other issues raised, the PILs sought resettlement and enrolling names of around 40,000 displaced Reang tribes people in the revised electoral rolls.
The PILs have named Ministry of Home Affairs, Election Commission and governments of Mizoram and Tripura as respondents.
The petitioners have sought direction to the Mizoram government to take back the Reang/Bru tribals in its territory who were forced to leave the villages in 1997 following sectarian violence.
The PILs have said the members of the tribe who took shelter in Tripura were leading a miserable life in refugee camps maintained by the state government with the help of the Centre and were only being provided with basic minimum means to survive.
Besides restoration of the names of the people who were duly listed in the electoral rolls till 1995, the Ashram had then sought inclusion of the names of the members of tribe who have become eligible to vote during the period 1995-2000.
The organisation alleged that Mizoram government has hostile attitude towards the tribe as the majority community in the state is Christian.
The PIL had submitted that even the National Human Rights Commission has confirmed that the Reangs have been subjected to atrocities and it was incumbent upon the Mizoram government to resettle them with adequate compensation and to restore their fundamental and constitutional rights. (PTI)
