Bru Mothoh (Council of Kaskau and Rai of the Riangs) and BSCO( Bru socio cultural organization) on Sunday through a joint press conference resented the arbitrary interference of a ‘politically influenced’ organization of Brus in customary law compilation citing the sensitivity and importance of the issue in the lives of common people.
Kripajay Reang of Bru Mothoh, one of the empaneled members of the Bru customary law review committee alleged, “This is very sad that with the help of one influential BJP MLA, an organization of Brus — Bru Songrongma, which has no authority to make suggestions or do improvements when it comes to customary law, is trying to influence the system. The TTAADC has already passed the Bru customary law and forwarded the matter for the codification to the state government. The state government after finding some errors advised the tribal welfare department to review the matter and henceforth a 9-member review committee has been constituted followed by a seminar in the month of July”.
However, he added, the tribal welfare department invited suggestive measures for modification of the customary laws through an advertisement. He continued and alleged, it was an irony that with the help of MLA Ram Pada Jamatia, Bru Songrongma submitted a separate set of customary law to Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb. The Songrongma is completely a religious organization and deals with the traditional worship related issue, he added.
He had also accused the organization of flouting all the sections of Bru customary law and using it for its own purpose. “In certain areas , the organization has started appointing Chowdhuries. The purpose behind it is to pocket the newly launched social pension for the community heads. In some areas people practicing christianity have been appointed as Chowdhury which is a blatant violation of the sections of Bru customary law. In some areas people are being penalized charging hefty amounts of money”, said Reang.
On being asked to be specific, he said, at Amarapur a family was charged Rs 3 lakh. As per the Reang customary law the penalty needs to be paid in silver coins. Now, the present value of a silver coin stands at Rs 100 and thus there is no scope to charge a family with such a hefty amount when the problem comes under the jurisdiction of customary law, said Reang. He also said that a memorandum had been placed to the Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma regarding the matter in presence of two BJP reang MLAs Prem Kumar Reang and Pramod Reang.
On the Bru resettlement issue, he said, people should stand beside the victim of historic conflicts. “We are not in a position to judge the refugees. The government knows where to settle the Brus and we feel no organization should come in opposition to it”, he added.
