No more repatriation of Brus in future: HM assures delegation

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has assured a delegation from Mizoram that repatriation of Brus from Tripura to Mizoram would not be conducted in future as the ninth round of the process which ended on November 30 was the "last and final exercise", a ZPM leader said on Monday.

The delegation, comprising leaders of political parties, civil societies and student bodies, was informed by Shah that no efforts would be made to bring back the Brus from the relief camps in Tripura to Mizoram and the remaining Brus would become citizens of Tripura, K Sapdanga general secretary of the Zoram People's Movement (ZPM), has claimed.

Sapdanga was member of the delegation which met the home minister on November 29.

Altogether 1,165 Brus, belonging to 289 families, returned to Mizoram from the six relief camps of Tripura during the ninth round of the government-sponsored repatriation exercise, a state home department official had said.

The repatriation exercise was the final attempt at bringing back the 4,447 Bru families - identified by the state as its bona fide residents who fled to the neighbouring state during an ethnic clash over two decades ago, he said.

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb had earlier written to the Union Home Minister to allow the Brus, who refused to return to Mizoram, to stay back in Tripura.

Tripuras royal scion Pradyot Kishore Manikya Deb Barman had said on Saturday, "Union Home Minister Amit Shahji has assured me of providing patta land for the Bru/Reang community in Kanchanpur under North Tripura district."