Agartala: A representative body of the 35,000 tribal refugees, sheltered in northern Tripura for more than 22 years after they fled Mizoram, on Thursday said that they would not return to their homeland unless their permanent rehabilitation and development package was announced by the government.
“The refugees are willing to go back to Mizoram. But the Mizoram government is too rigid to solve our basic issues permanently resulting in the failure of previous repatriation process,” said the General Secretary of the Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF), the apex body of refugees, Bruno Msha.
He said: “At the moment we are not insisting on our original demands. Now we the Dampa Tiger Reserve Sanctuary de-reserved in Mizoram so that tribal refugees are rehabilitated there.
“Our second demand is a development package by the Union DoNER (Development of North Eastern Region) and Tribal Affairs Ministries for long-lasting and all-round development of the backward Reang tribals.”
Over 35,000 Reang tribal refugees including women and children have been sheltered in seven relief camps since October 1997 after they fled their villages in western Mizoram in the wake of communal tension.
Earlier this month, the government had stopped supplying food grains and relief materials ostensibly to force them to return their villages in Mizoram.
After 8-day blockades to the vital highways in northern Tripura, a ministerial team led by Tripura Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma, visited the refugee camps and resumed their food grains and relief materials for November only.
Meanwhile, the Tripura government has written to the Centre, saying it could accommodate up to 500 families in the state if adequate funds were sanctioned for the cause.
In a letter to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Minister Biplab Deb said the final repatriation process was scheduled to end on November 30, as per the agreement signed between the Centre, governments of Mizoram and Tripura, and the representatives of Bru migrants, but only 144 of 4,447 families have returned to their home state so far.
“The state government is of the view that Bru refugees who wish to stay in Tripura may be given suitable package at par with what is being offered to those returning to Mizoram,” Deb said in his letter. (Agencies)
