Aizawl: Not a single Bru refugee returned from Tripura to Mizoram on the last day of the fourth phase of repatriation on Tuesday, even as the state government made elaborate arrangements to receive 147 Bru families from Kaskau relief camp in North Tripura.
Mamit (in Mizoram-Tripura border) DC Rodney L Ralte said over phone from Mamit that the officials sent to the relief camp and also to the facilitation camps were returning after the Bru refugees refused to return to Mizoram.
The fourth phase of the repatriation which commenced from April 26 as proposed by the Union Home Ministry and the state governments of Mizoram and Tripura failed as only 41 people belonging to seven families returned of the 669 families proposed to be repatriated.
Appeals made by the major NGOs in Mizoram to the Brus who are bona fide residents of the state also fell on deaf ears even as the NGO Co-ordination Committee repeated the appeals on Monday.
The refugees made a plethora of demands to the Union Home Ministry and the Mizoram government as conditions for their return which included formation of a separate district council for the Brus under the sixth schedule of the constitution in Mizoram.
PTI
