Aizawl, Feb 14: More than 35,000 people, majority
of them belonging to the Chakma community are facing difficulty in the ongoing fencing along the 318-km long Mizoram-Bangladesh border but Mizoram government says they are not 'displaced'.
The Mizoram Home department, in reply to the complaint
filed by the Asian Indigenous and Tribal People's Network
(AITPN) to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), said
that the Chakmas along the Indo-Bangladesh border are not
'displaced' as the fencing line is not along the international
border.
Deputy Secretary of Home Department Romawia said the
families fenced out by the ongoing border fencing can remain
outside the fencing or shift from the outside to the inner
side.
"There is no objection if the 'fenced-out' families
continue to reside outside the fencing," Romawia wrote in
response to the AITPN's complaint which put the number of
people to 35,000.
Reports said the entire Tarabonye hamlet has fallen
outside the border fence and the families were prevented by
the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) personnel from collecting river
sand for sale, which was earlier their main source of income.
Former state Chief Secretary Haukhum Hauzel was
informed by villagers of Bindiasora, where around 80 families
now fall outside the fence, about their plight, reports said.
The government maintained that those affected by
fencing were being compensated appropriately.
However, disputing the government's claim the Chakma
residents ask "if we are not called displaced then who can be
so?"
A Chakma resident of Tarabonye hamlet said the
villagers lodged a complaint to the Chief Secretary last year
alleging inadequate compensation.
Four public sector companies undertook the
Mizoram-Bangladesh border fencing works.
But neither the Centre nor the state government has
publicly announced any resettlement and rehabilitation plan,
the NGOs claimed.
Bureau Report
First Published: Saturday, February 14, 2009, 00:00