Bru voters list revised in camps, despite protest in Mizoram

The Mizoram election department has conducted revision of voters lists of Bru refugees in theri Tripura camps before the repatriation, despite opposition from the civil societies, officials today said.

The move came in the wake of the latest instruction from the Election Commission (EC) that directed the state government to conduct revision of electoral rolls in the relief camps of the Bru refugees.

Civil society members were not happy with the order and a section of them had prevented several election department officer from entering Tripura on August 10 at Zawlnuam village bordering Tripura, but that could not stop the revision, the official said.

At a meeting with civil societies and political parties on August 8, Mizoram Home Minister R Lalzirliana had said the state government recently received instructions from the EC to conduct revision of voters' lists in the relief camps. Its earlier order had said revision would be conducted in Mizoram after completion of the repatriation process.

"We have to implement the instructions of the Election Commission of India by conducting the electoral roll revisions in the relief camps," he had said at the meeting.

The civil societies and the political parties, however, were not happy with the latest instruction of the EC.

The Centre, state governments of Mizoram and Tripura and the Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF), the apex body of the Bru community in the relief camps, have on July 3 signed an agreement for repatriation of all the Bru refugees from Tripura before September 30.

Repatriation of over 32,000 Bru refugees staying in six relief camps in North Tripura district to Mizoram is scheduled to start from August 25.