AGARTALA: Thousands of non-tribals on Thursday organised a rally demanding rehabilitation of hundreds of displaced people who were affected due to giving 34,000 Reang tribals shelter in northern Tripura after they fled from Mizoram 23 years ago due to ethnic unrest.
An agreement signed in New Delhi on January 16 stated that those Reang tribals among the 34,000 migrants unwilling to go back to Mizoram would be rehabilitated in Tripura under a Rs 600 crore package.
Around 15,000 people, mostly non-tribals, under the banner of the Nagarik Suraksha Manch (NSM) on Thursday held a rally in northern Tripura’s Kanchanpur, demanding rehabilitation of the displaced non-tribal people, mostly belonging to the Bengali community.
Rights groups and student leaders from Delhi, Kolkata and Guwahati, including Chandan Chatterjee and Kausik Maiti, and leaders of different political parties addressed the gathering held at Kanchanpur, 200 km north of Agartala.
NSM President Ranjit Kumar Nath said that due to the setting up of seven camps for the 34,000 Reang tribal refugees, over 3,000 people comprising 600 families, residents of the nine Tripura villages in Kanchanpur, were been displaced and badly affected in 2000.
He claimed that again on December 10 last year, during the tribals’ agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 400 people comprising 92 families fled their villages following attacks by anti-CAA agitators.
Meanwhile, Bruno Msha, General Secretary of Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF), the apex body of the Reang tribal refugees, told the media that they are grateful to the state and Central government for resolving their decades old imbroglio.
“We also want proper rehabilitation of the affected non-tribal people of Tripura. We would like to live together with ethnic harmony,” Msha said.
According to the January 16 agreement, each Reang tribal refugee family would get a plot to construct a house, free ration for two years, along with a monetary aid.
IANS