3,498 Bru families identified as bonafide residents of

Mizoram government officials have identified 3,498 families staying in the six Bru relief camps in Tripura as bonafide residents of the state, Home secretary Lalbiakzam said Tuesday.

All the identified families have expressed willingness to the officials to return to Mizoram during the proposed government-sponsored repatriation process, Lalbiakzama told PTI.

"The second phase of identification process commenced on July three and is scheduled to be completed by July 20," he said, adding that the period might be extended if the officials could not complete the process on time.

Though the Ministry of Home Affairs has expressed its desire to begin the physical repatriation from September and to complete it within a month, but the unprecedented belated onset of monsoon might compel the government to defer the beginning of the repatriation process, the Mizoram Home secretary said.

He said that all the arrangements including the logistics of the repatriation like transportation, construction of transit camps along the Tripura border as also the quantum of free ration and cash dole would be determined by the number of identified people as well as those who were noted as willing to return to Mizoram.

Those who return to the state would be provided a free ration and Rs 5,000 per month per family for a period of two years, as per the agreement reached between the Centre, state governments of Mizoram and Tripura and Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF) on July three, 2018.