AGARTALA, May 25 (TIWN): After verifying 494 Reang families living in Tripura and they are confirmed as the genuine residents of Mizoram, SDO (Sadar) of Mamit district T. Vanlalmalsaw told TIWN over telephone on Sunday.

He said the verification work was conducted earlier this month in a bid to bring back these Reang (Bru) 494 families refugees living in  Tripura to Mizoram, the government of Mizoram is presently working out with repatriation process for some of the Bru families living at six camps at Kanchanpur sub  division.

Central government has sanctioned the required fund for the repatriation of these Bru families. Each of the families would be given a rehabilitation of Rs. 80,000 for house construction, Rs. 5500 for conveyance and Rs. 2000 for makeshift. They would also be provided rice free of cost for one year” said Mr. Vanlalmalsaw.

The Mizoram official stated that the actual time and date for repatriation would be decided on Tuesday in a state level meeting under the leadership of the state chief secretary. This is going to the 6th phase of repatriation for Reang (Bru) refugees living Tripura.

It is worth mentioning here that the relationship between the Mizos and the Brus has not been going well in the past 15 years. Hundreds of Brus had left Mizoram in 1997 and in 2009. The first case was triggered when Bru militants murdered two Mizos who were forest guards on October 21, 1997

The second case happened after a 17-year-old Mizo boy was killed by the Brus near Bungthuam village on November 13, 2009. When the Bru left Mizoram they had driven out some Mizos in villages of Sakhan Hill Range in Tripura like Sakhan Serhmun, Sakhan Tlangsang, Sakhan Tualsen and Upper Dosda which had kicked up much ruckus in Mizoram then.