New Delhi, August 1 (TIWN): Tripura MP and CPI (M) chief whip at the Lok Sabha Jitendra Chaudhury on Friday demanded effective intervention of the central government in repatriation of the Bru displacement victims of Mizoram and said that the repatriation process would have to involve proper compensation and rehabilitation package.Chaudhury raised the issue in the Lok Sabha during Zero Hour of the House proceedings today. CPI (M) MPs including PK Karunakaran, PK Sreemathi, Badruzza Khan, Dr. A Sampath and MB Rajesh were associated with the issues raised by Chaudhury. Later on, other MPs from North East appreciated the move and they expressed their strong concern that the stalemate may be resolved at an earliest.

MP Chaudhury today said that the Bru displacement victim families needed a permanent solution and an end of prolonged camp life. Over 35 thousand displacement victims who fled Mamit, Kolasib and Lunglei districts of Mizoram after the acute Mizo-Reang clashes in 1997-98 took shelter in six major relief camps of Kanchanpur sub-division in North Tripura district.

Referring to the new generation born in the camps in the past 17 years, Chaudhury today said in the Parliament that years of displacement and camp life have denied the sheltered displaced families of education and other social needs.

“The adults are deprived from exercising their very fundamental right of choosing their own representatives in different Constitutional bodies. This is a saga of a very unfortunate, unpredented and one of the rarest incidents of violating the gross human rights in the history of Independent India”, Chaudhury said.

He demanded central intervention to ensure that the ongoing repatriation process involves restoring rights of the displaced people. “It must be ensured that the families have full access to their land, which they have been possessing earlier for decades and where they have been cultivating. Entitlement of land might be issued under the Forest Rights Act FRA if the lands are belonging to the Forest Department”, he said.

Chaudhury further stressed that identification issues during repatriation should be sorted out by the Election Commission of India which could approach any camp inmates of 18 years age or above and issue EPIC cards to them. He sought all former public service holders in Mizoram to be reinstated in their earlier posts and extended with all benefits.

Referring to security threat perception among the Bru displacement victims, MP Jitendra Chaudhury said that proper security arrangement would be required where the displaced families would be repatriated or resettled.

He sought a proper dialogue between the displaced Reangs and ethnic Mizo communities in Mizoram to smoothen the transition process ahead of the next phase of repatriation.

The last six phases of repatriation didn’t go very well with multiple halts in between as ethnic Mizo organizations like the YMA, MZP, MHIP and others raised serious objections to the return of the Bru displacement victims in the state.