No more repatriation exercise: Mizoram government

The Mizoram government has decided that the ongoing Bru repatriation process should be the last one and no more such exercises would be carried out, officials said on Saturday.

Over 4,000 Bru displaced families, lodged in the relief camps in North Tripura district, are scheduled to return to neighbouring Mizoram during the repatriation process which commenced on October 3 and is scheduled to be completed by November 30.

A meeting of the Mizoram Council of Ministers held on Friday decided not to conduct another repatriation exercise of Brus after completion of the ongoing repatriation process, the officials said.

The repatriation issued was deliberated in the meeting which was chaired by Chief Minister Zoramthanga and was attended by all the ministers including Cabinet and ministers of state, the officials said.

Former Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee president Pradyot Manikya had visited the Bru relief camps located in North Tripura district during the road blockade organised by the inmates of the relief camps on Wednesday and made a statement that the Tripura government should allow the Brus (known as Reangs in Tripura) to remain in the state.

"Tripura has enough place to accommodate Reang people. This is your land and nobody can force you to quit from here," the former Tripura state PCC chief, said while stating that the Reang people, who lost their lands due to Dumbur Hydropower plant at Amarpur sub-division in Tripura migrated to some parts of Mizoram.

Earlier, the last meeting of the Joint Monitoring Group (JMG) held in Delhi on September six had decided that the ninth and 'final round' of physical repatriation of 4,447 Bru families lodged at the six relief camps in North Tripura district would commence from October.

The Centre had made it clear that the relief camps of Bru refugees in Tripura would be closed down and the displaced persons must be repatriated to Mizoram during the ongoing exercise, Special Secretary (internal security), Ministry of Home Affairs, A P Maheshwari, had said on October 16.

This ninth round of Bru repatriation - scheduled to be continued till November 30 - has been termed as the "final" one by the government.

The Bru community, also called Reangs, is among the 21 scheduled tribes in the country. They are scattered across Assam, Mizoram and Tripura.