Bru settlement: Tripura begins survey to identify

The Tripura government has commenced a survey in the six Bru rehabilitation camps to identify the beneficiaries who will be settled in the state and the entire process is expected to be completed by October, officials said here on Friday.

Thousands of Bru community people have been living in relief camps in two sub-divisions of North Tripura district since 1997. They had fled Mizoram to reach the neighbouring state because of ethnic clashes.

An agreement was signed by representatives of the Brus, the central, Tripura and Mizoram governments in New Delhi on January 16 allowing these tribal people to permanently settle in Tripura after living in the state for around 23 years.

"The state revenue department has begun a survey in the Bru rehabilitation camps on January 18 to find out the exact number of the inmates and beneficiaries of the agreement. They would also receive a rehabilitation package," Sub-divisional Magistrate of Kanchanpur, Abhedananda Baidya said.

The Brus are staying in six camps at Kanchanpur and Panisagar sub-divisions of North Tripura district. They get free ration and a cash dole from the Centre.

Under the agreement, Rs 4 lakh will be given to each Bru family in a fixed deposit account, Rs 5,000 per month for two years, a plot of land in Tripura and ration for two years.

The central government will provide Rs 600 crore to the state government for this purpose.

Official sources said the government has to be cautious that only the real displaced people get the benefits and the entire procedure to settle the Brus is expected to be completed by October this year.

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb last week said it will take at least six months to resettle the 34,000 odd members of the community, following norms of the agreement.

The agreement was signed one-and-a-half months after the latest initiative to send the Bru refugees back to Mizoram failed. Of the targeted 4,447 families, the chief minister said only 350 families could be repatriated.

The vexed Bru issue started from September, 1997, following demands of a separate autonomous district council by carving out areas of western Mizoram adjoining Bangladesh and Tripura.

The situation was aggravated by the murder of a forest guard in the Dampa Tiger Reserve in western Mizoram by Bru National Liberation Front insurgents on October 21 that year.

The first attempt to repatriate the Brus from Tripura was made in November 2009.

The Centre, along with the governments of Tripura and Mizoram, had been trying to repatriate them to their home state over the past one decade, with little success.