Situation under control, claims Kanchanpur SDM
GUWAHATI: The indefinite road blockade launched by thousands of Bru inmates of seven camps in north Tripura district entered its fourth day on Sunday with the situation simmering after two inmates – a three-month-old infant and a 60-year-old woman – died, allegedly owing to lack of food.
District authorities however said the cause of deaths of the infant, Jolin Champion, and Maloti Reang, 60, was yet to be ascertained as the post mortem report was awaited.
About 12,000 displaced Bru people, comprising men, women and children, blocked the stretch between Dasda in Kanchanpur and Anandabazar since Thursday morning, demanding immediate resumption of ration distribution and cash doles among the seven camps in northern Tripura.
The Centre had suspended supply of ration and cash doles since October 1, 2019 ahead of the final and ninth phase of repatriation of Bru refugees to Mizoram on October 3, triggering concerns among the camp inmates with the spectre of starvation looming and eventually prompting them to launch an agitation.
“We are ensuring law and order prevails in the area and keeping things under control. As a precautionary measure, Section 144 has been promulgated in and around the government-owned food godown at Anandabazar. Besides, I have visited the protest area regularly since Thursday and met the Bru leaders with whom I share a good rapport,” Kanchanpur sub-divisional magistrate, Abhedananda Baidya, told The Shillong Times over phone on Sunday.
Representatives from four leading Bru NGOs such as the Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF), Mizoram Bru Indigenous Democratic Movement (MBIDM), Bru Tribal Development Society and Bru Displaced Women Welfare Committee are also taking part in the protest.
“According to the family members of the two deceased, the cause of deaths was related to hunger, even though the official report is awaited. No doctors have visited the camp where the deaths were reported,” said G.B Herbert Reang, president of Mizoram Bru Indigenous Democratic Movement, a leading NGO.
Reang further said that local NGOs and residents have provided food grains and money to the protesters over the past couple of days.
“But most of the families are facing a lot of problems. There is no doctor for medical care in the camps. The situation has taken a turn for the worse since the two deaths,” he said,
Traffic along the 50-km stretch has remained disrupted for 12 hours from 5am over the past four days.
The Bru leaders and protesters have also threatened to intensify the agitation and block the national highway as well if there is no response from the Centre to their demand of resumption of ration supply and distribution of cash among the seven relief camps
Officials said that 216 Bru families have returned to Mizoram from the relief camps since October 3 and the repatriation is scheduled to be completed by November 30.
The repatriation process was undertaken to bring back 4,447 Bru families living in the Tripura relief camps since 1997.
The Centre has approved Rs 350 crore for the ninth phase of repatriation and the amount covers transportation and rehabilitation package, which includes Rs 5,000 per month for each resettled Bru family in Mizoram and free rations for them for two years.