agartala/Aizawl: Following pressure from the union home ministry and the Tripura government, Mizoram has finally agreed to take back all the tribal refugees sheltering in Tripura for the past 18 years.
According to Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Badal Choudhury, there are 5,286 tribal families comprising 31,223 men, women and children sheltered in seven camps in Kanchanpur and Panisagar sub-divisions under North Tripura district adjoining Mizoram.
The Reang tribals, who locally call themselves “Bru”, have lived in makeshift camps camps in Tripura since October 1997 when they fled western Mizoram after the killing of a Mizo forest officer triggered ethnic trouble.
The Mizoram government earlier refused to take back all the refugees citing that all the migrants are not the resident of Mizoram.
“In the Friday’s district magistrate-level meeting, the Mizoram government officials more or less agreed to take back all the refugees sheltered in Tripura,” said Das, who was also present in the meeting.
The Tripura government team was led by additional district magistrate of North Tripura district Ranjit Das while Mizoram’s team was led by Mamit district Deputy Commissioner Vanlalngaihsaka.
Meanwhile, Mizoram’s additional secretary of home department Lalbiakzama said in Aizawl that following the Supreme Court’s directives and the decision made in the meeting of the union home ministry in presence of Mizoram and Tripura governments’ officials on January 30, it was proposed to repatriate all the remaining tribal families from the relief camps in north Tripura district.
“The union home ministry has recently released Rs.4.7 crore for the repatriation purposes, but the amount would not be sufficient for repatriation of all the remaining Reang tribal families,” Lalbiakzama said.
The Mizoram government earlier sought around Rs.70 crore financial assistance from the union home ministry to rehabilitate the repatriated tribal refugees.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and his deputy Kiren Rijiju had visited the refugee camps and held talks with the refugee leaders on February 14 and persuaded the tribal to go back to their villages in western Mizoram.
Refugee leaders told the central ministers that they were willing to return to their homes in Mizoram if their 10 points demands, including security and rehabilitation, were met.
Tripura Revenue and Relief Minister Choudhury told sources:
“We urge upon the central government to ask the Mizoram government to take back the refugees.””A serious socio-economic problem has cropped up due to the long stay of the refugees in Tripura. The refugees have damaged vast areas in forests in Kanchanpur causing serious environmental problems,” he added.”It is very unfortunate that the tribals despite being Indians nationals and permanent inhabitant of a state, are unable to live in their homeland. This is dangerous for the ethnic amity, stability and peace,” the minister said.”Some refugees are involved in terrorist activities. The refugees also work for cheap wages, creating an awkward situation for local labourers,” the minister said. (IANS)
