Bru refugee leaders have urged the State Government to reconsider the ‘Split families’ issue and ‘Left Out families’ issue and demanded for compensation for 173 displaced families living outside of relief camps. A delegation of Mizoram Bru Displaced Peoples’ Forum (MBDPF) submitted a memorandum to the State Government to this end through Kanchanpur SDM on Thursday. However, the memorandum evoked strong criticisms from Joint Movement Committee leaders.
MBDPF leaders said that they had unanimously accepted 13 Government proposed sites for Bru re-settlement and urged the Government to expedite the re-settlement process in those sites with adequate security.
Reacting sharly, over the Statement, Tripura Mizo Convention leader Dr Z Pachuau termed this demand as ‘unnatural’ and said that members of Joint Movement Committee (JMC) members had already softened its stand and agreed re-settlement in 6 places in Kanchanpur and Panisagar sub-divisions. There is no question of further compromise – it is up to the stakeholders to accept or reject our proposal, Dr Pachuau said and hoped that stakeholders would agree with the JMC proposals of six sites for Brus.
MBDPF leaders urged the State Government to approve total 2068 Split families of Bru community. The memorandum read, “During the course of 23 years, naturally the family has to split because of either marriage, divorce or other unavoidable circumstances”.
Besides, the Bru leaders also appealed to the State Government for reconsidering the issue of Left Out families in the publication of Population verification. The memorandum read, “A considerable number of genuine rationing families have been left out in the final publication of population verification conducted by Kanchanpur and Panisagar sub-divisions in June and July, 2020”. In the memo, Bru leaders claimed, these missing families could be found in the previous census.
In another demand the Bru leaders also sought compensation for 173 displaced families living outside relief camps. MBDPF leaders said, approximately 173 Bru displaced families who fled from Mizoram in 1997 and 1998 and took sheltered at Sakhan Range and other pans of Tripura without getting any Government relief facilities like those other living in relief camps.
“In the wake of 83 Mizo families who fled from Tripura fearing the retaliatory attack from the Brus and staying in Mizoram had been given Rs. 1.5 lakh in 2012 as a onetime compensation”, Bru leaders pointed out and justified its claim for compensation for 173 displaced Brus.
However, Nagarik Surakhsha Manch leader Sushanta Bikas Barua rubbished the claimed for compensation for 173 brus. Barua alleged, those Bru people illegally availed Government benefits for long time. Investigating Officials too found them illegally reaping government assistances and excluded their names from the refugees list. Training guns at MBDPF leaders, Barua alleged the Bru leaders are trying to illegally ensure Government benefits for some families.
Meanwhile, Barua also contradicted the claim that 83 Mizo families had left for Mizoram. He said, records show that these Mizo families took shelter in Jampui hills after being displaced due to fear of Bru retaliation.
