AGARTALA, June 1 (TIWN): Decks being readied at Kanchanpur bordering area under North District of Tripura for another repatriation of the Reang refugees who called themselves ‘Bru’. DM North Dr. Rathod Sandeep Rewaji confirmed TIWN on Sunday that the verification of the refugees at Kanchanpur would be held at June 2 and later after the repatriation process would begin.

In the recent meeting held in this year, chaired by Joint Secretary (NE) of Union Home Ministry Shambhu Singh, decided that the Brus lodged in the relief camps in North Tripura district would be given six month deadlines for returning to Mizoram if not, then their names would be deleted from the Mizoram voter list.

While the Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF), led by A Sawibung, demanded Rs 1.5 lakh as rehabilitation and resettlement package for a repatriated family, the centre decided that Rs 80,000 per family was sufficient.

According to the Mizoram voters' lists those who were yet to be repatriated were 3,455 families - 2,594 families from Mizoram-Tripura border Mamit District, 628 families from Mizoram-Assam border Kolasib District and 233 families from Mizoram-Bangladesh border Lunglei district.

However, Mizoram govt. has finally agreed to take back all the tribal refugees sheltering in Tripura for the past 18 years. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh early this year had visited the Kanchanpur refugee camps and has taken the stock of the situation.

During the first phase the refugees enrolled in Mizoram voter lists would be identified whereas during the second phase those who claimed to be actual residents of the state but were not included in the voters' lists would be identified, said the officer.   

The identification and actual repatriation would be conducted from Kaskau relief camp, the nearest one from the Mizoram border.

The official on Wednesday  told TIWN that several meetings were held in regard of the repatriation of the bru refugees and at last it was finalised that the process would commence from the middle of June, 2015 and would be completed likely by September.

Brus refugees taking shelter for the past 18 years in Tripura Kanchanpur bordering area would be repatriated from the six relief camps in North Tripura district following a meeting between Mizoram and Tripura government officials.

A tripartite meeting was held earlier this month between the officials of Tripura and Mizoram government and refugee leaders and was decided to repatriate the refugees from Tripura to Mizoram. There are 5,286 tribal families comprising 31,223 men, women and children sheltered in seven camps in Kanchanpur and Panisagar sub-divisions under North Tripura district adjoining Mizoram.

It is worthy to mention here that during the previous year around 300 refugees sheltered in Tripura since 1997 have returned to Mizoram whereas another large number of refugees who called themselves as ‘Bru’ refused to went back to Mizoram as their demands had not yet been fulfilled. They alleged that the Mizoram govt. had failed to fulfill their demands of separate autonomous body along with others.