Agartala: The two organisations of Bru displaced people of Mizoram, who are currently residing in six camps in North Tripura, submitted a letter to the district magistrate and threatened to loot food godowns if the ration supplies to the refugees are stopped, as decided by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
The district administration has in the meantime beefed up security at public institutions in Kanchanpur and Panisagar sub-divisions of North Tripura on Friday including food godowns in the district following the threat which has complicated the repatriation process of Bru refugees to their homeland and further escalated the situation.
The North Tripura district administration had stopped ration supplies and all financial support to Bru refugees living in the camps following directions by the MHA earlier this month.
At present, about 21,000 Bru people belonging to 4,447 displaced families are lodged in different camps.
“Initially, we could manage from whatever little stock of food and cash we had. However, hunger has plagued the camp in the past week to the point where we are even unable to provide food to the children. Earlier this month, we were expecting a reasonable solution to the problem and in last week there was a meeting with MHA officials over the issue. But no solutions have come up,” said Bru leader Bipin Kumar Mesa.
He pointed out that stopping food supply to such a large number of Indian citizens who have been displaced due to inter-community conflict was not only a violation of human rights, but a provocation to create public disorder and social chaos.
‘’No government can undertake such an inhuman decision when the grievances of a large section of the people are unaddressed,’’ he stated.
The letter addressed to North Tripura District Magistrate by the Mizoram Bru Displaced Peoples’ Forum and Mizoram Bru Indigenous Democratic Movement stated that “There will be a number of casualties due to starvation in the next few days as it has already been 24 days since the rations have stopped. The hungry and desperate camp inmates have no other alternative but to block the main road and will be forced to loot government godowns for their survival.”
According to the decision, all Bru refugees have to be repatriated in selected locations of West Mizoram by next month.
Accordingly supply of rations and all other aid have been discontinued by the central government and hence the district magistrate has stopped the supply, which had been given since 1997.
Meanwhile, as per the decision of MHA, the relief camps of Bru refugees in Tripura would be closed down and the displaced persons must be repatriated to Mizoram during the ongoing exercise by November this year.
A total of 178 Bru families have been repatriated since the ninth round of the exercise, which was termed as the final repatriation which began on October 3.
During the eighth round of repatriation, MHA had warned that the relief camps would be closed down from October last year and free rations and monetary assistance to the displaced families would be discontinued.
However, due to the Mizoram assembly election, assistance was again provided.
Meanwhile, the Centre has approved Rs 350 crore for the ninth phase of repatriation and the amount will cover transportation and rehabilitation package expenses, which include Rs 5,000 per month for each resettled Bru family in Mizoram and free rations for two years.
So far, eight attempts have been made to repatriate the Bru refugees and only 1,681 families have returned to Mizoram since 2010. The families were resettled in Mamit, Kolashib and Lunglei districts. (UNI)
