Shillong: Refugees displaced in the ethnic riots along the Assam and Meghalaya border have returned to their respective states and have been enumerated in the ongoing census, official sources said on Saturday.
Some 6,500 people who had fled to Assam from Meghalaya in the wake of the clashes in January, have returned and were enumerated by census officials in the relief camps in Meghalaya`s East Garo Hills district, Deputy Commissioner
Pravin Bakshi said.
He said while some of the refugees have returned to their villages, around 4,000 were still in the relief camps and would shift to their villages gradually.
Those refugees from Assam who had taken shelter in Meghalaya had already repatriated.
Earlier, there were fears that these displaced people might not be covered in the census as they were refusing to return to their respective states due to security concerns.
The East Garo Hills administration had been making persistent attempts to instil confidence among the riot hit people.
Some 50,000 people were displaced in the 9-day ethnic riots last month in which 12 people were also killed and over 2,000 houses torched.
In the second phase of the country`s biggest ever census, 5688 enumerators and 995 supervisors carried out the headcount in Meghalaya and the revisional round slated to conclude today.
In this 2011 census, enumerators in Meghalaya covered 6,839 villages, 22 towns.
PTI
