The Tripura and Mizoram Governments on Friday differed on the number of Bru refugees repatriated and there is a mismatch of 193 people in the figures provided by the two States.
Mizoram Home Secretary Lalbiakzama said 892 people of 221 internally-displaced Bru families have been repatriated, while North Tripura District Magistrate Ravel H Kumar put the figure at 699 refugees belonging to 144 families.
Altogether 4,447 Bru displaced families, lodged in relief camps at Kanchanpur and Panisagar sub-divisions of North Tripura district, are scheduled to return to neighbouring Mizoram from where they had fled since 1997 following ethnic clashes. This ninth round of repatriation process, stated to be the “final” one, will come to an end on November 30.
The Mizoram home secretary said 892 Bru people, including 351 children, belonging to 221 families have been repatriated till November 14.
Of them, 134 families have been settled at Mamit district, 68 in Lunglei and 19 in Kolasib district of Mizoram, Lalbiakzama said.
Kumar on Friday sent an official report to the chief secretary’s office providing date-wise number of people repatriated to Mizoram between October 3, when the process began, and November 15.
However, he said in the report, no Bru person went to Mizoram since October 31, though the process has been on.
The displaced people had launched a roadblock at Kanchanpur from October 31 demanding resumption of cash-dole and free ration to them. It was withdrawn on November 7 following an assurance from Tripura Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Deb Varma to resume supply of free ration.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has stopped all allowances to the displaced Bru persons from October and the Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF), a major body of the refugees, claimed that six people had died of starvation after the ration supply was stopped.
The Tripura Government, however, said four people died and the cause of the deaths was being ascertained.
Meanwhile, the MBDPF on Friday said a delegation of the Bru refugees had visited New Delhi to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah but could not meet him due to his busy schedule.