Aizawl: The displaced Brus, now lodged in
six camps of Tripura, have demanded that they be resettled in
Kolasib and Mamit districts of Mizoram in grouped villages --
a demand which has been rejected by the state's Home Minister.
A memorandum submitted to Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla by
Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF) here rejected the
state's proposal that the Brus on repatriation would settle in
the villages they stayed in before taking refuge in Tripura in
1997, official sources said today.
Refusing the proposal of the Bru leaders to settle them
in the two districts, Mizoram Home Minister R Lalzirliana
accused them of refusing to return to Mizoram as they were
enjoying comfortable lives in the relief camps, the sources
said.
The Brus demanded elaborate security arrangements for
the community and inclusion of the community in the Primitive
Tribals Group, besides being given job reservation.
A special development project should be set up manned
by a committee with the chairman and member-secretary from the
community.
The memorandum demanded that the Bru resettlers be
provided free ration including mosquito nets, utensils,
garments, blankets, salt, kerosene, chappals, soaps and other
essentials for a year.
The MBDPF demanded Rs one lakh be given to each of the
families whose houses were torched during the communal tension
triggered by the murder of a Mizo youth by suspecter Bru
militants on November 13, besides Rs 30,000 for each family
for reconstruction of their homes.
The other demands were establishment of central school,
college, polytechnic school, cultural academy IT centre and a
hospital in the Bru-inhabited areas, the sources said.
The proposed repatriation of Bru refugees from Tripura
from November 16, 2009 was derailed by the murder of a 17
year-old Mizo at Bungthuam hamlet on the Mizoram-Tripura
border just three days before.
Lal Thanhawla had recently announced that the proposed
expenditure for repatriation of Brus from Tripura had already
been sanctioned and that some Bru leaders had rejected the
repatriation proposal as they are getting benefits from the
relief camps.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 21:59