Tripura: Food supplies halted in camps, Bru migrants announce indefinite road blockade

It connects Dasda, Bhandarima, Anandanagar and adjoining areas with the rest of the state. The blockade will exclude emergency services like ambulance, fire service etc.

“..the ongoing repatriation process is exactly forceful mot a peaceful as it has been taken place regardless of the safety and security of the displaced Brus, and ignoring all the simple and minimum demands of the Joint Memorandum submitted by MBDPF, MBIDM, BDWWC and BTDS,” the letter reads.

The letter refers to a joint memorandum of three Bru organisations addressed to Union Home Minister Amit Shah that was submitted through Kanchanpur SDM Abhedananda Baidya on October 21 this year.

“…the displaced Brus are reluctant to repatriate due to non-consideration of minimum and simple demands raised by the MBDPF which are under the framework of the ‘Quadrilateral Agreement’,” the memo read.

Kanchanpur SDM Abhedananda Baidya, however, said necessary security arrangements have been made in the area to deal with the situation.

Around 37,000 people from Bru communities fled Mamit, Kolasib and Lunglei districts of Mizoram during ethnic clashes in October 1997. They were sheltered in six relief camps in Kanchanpur and Panisagar sub-divisions of North Tripura district.

In eight subsequent phases of repatriation, nearly 5,000 migrants went back to Mizoram. But many among them returned to Tripura, complaining of poor living standards and insecurity. Around 350 have returned so far in the 9th phase.

According to a relief package announced by the government six months after Bru migrants’ arrival in Tripura in 1997, 600 grams of rice is provided daily to every adult Bru person living in the camps and 300 grams of rice is allotted daily to minors. The package also has provisions for cash dole of Rs 5 per adult per day, Rs 2.5 for every minor in a day, a soap in one year, a pair of slippers every year and a mosquito net in every three years.

Highlighting that these were meagre supplies, the outfit wrote to DM RH Kumar last week saying, “As it is already 24 days that the rations and cash-dole do not have any alternative option but to block the main road, looting of government godowns etc. for their survival.”