Agartala, Aug 8 (PTI) With the rehabilitation package coming into effect, Bru refugees who fled Mizoram and are living in relief camps in Tripura would not be entitled to benefits like free ration from September 1, if they do not agree to resettlement elsewhere.
The Bru refugees are lodged in seven relief camps in Kanchanpur and Panisagar subdivisions of North Tripura district.
As many as 3,232 such internally displaced families of the Bru community have already been relocated in Tripura with various benefits ranging from housing to cash dole, an official said.
“We have received an order that relief to the Bru refugees lodged in relief camps will be discontinued from September 1. Accordingly, leaders of the Bru community were asked to submit ‘consent letters’ from heads of families, who are yet to be rehabilitated, mentioning the locations in which they want to be resettled,” Kanchanpur Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Subhash Acharya, told PTI over telephone.
Around 1,200 families were yet to submit their consent letters seeking resettlement, he said.
“The leaders of Bru community were asked to submit the consent letters from all the remaining families by August 16 for taking necessary steps”, Acharya said.
The government has set a target of rehabilitation of all the Bru families in 12 locations of the state by August 31.
Following an agreement signed in January last year among representatives of the community, the Centre, and the governments of Tripura and Mizoram, the state government has already initiated the process to rehabilitate 37,136 members of 6,959 Bru families.
A 1,200 square feet plot has been allotted to each rehabilitated Bru family and Rs 1.5 lakh was provided by the government to set up a home.
The agreement guarantees a fixed deposit of Rs 4 lakh for each family, a monthly sum of Rs 5,000, and a free monthly ration for two years besides the setting up of schools in all cluster villages.
The vexed Bru issue started in September 1997, following demands for a separate autonomous district council for the community by carving out areas of western Mizoram adjoining Bangladesh and Tripura. A large number of Bru people fled from Mizoram to Tripura as ethnic clashes broke out.
The Centre, along with the governments of Tripura and Mizoram, had been trying to repatriate them to their home state over the past decade, with little success.
The first attempt to repatriate the Brus from Tripura was made in November 2009 and the last one in 2019.
Several Bru families have refused to return to Mizoram, citing security concerns and inadequate rehabilitation package. Some have also sought a separate autonomous council for the community.
However, the January 2020 agreement has allowed these tribal people to permanently settle in Tripura. PTI PS MM MM
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