Agartala: Bru refugees living in camps in North Tripura have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his intervention to resume the distribution of cash assistance and ration items.
Over 35,000 Bru refugees who fled Mamit, Kolasib and Lunglei districts of adjoining Mizoram after ethnic clashes in 1997-98, live in six relief camps in Kanchanpur of North Tripura, 170km from here. A group of refugees came in 2009 after fresh tension erupted in Mizoram.
Bruno Msha, secretary of the Mizoram Bru Displaced Peoples Forum, said in a press release on Saturday that cash given to them as part of the central relief package had stopped since July last year and ration supply was irregular too. He said the refugees are paid a meagre Rs 5 for adults and Rs 2.5 for minors per day as cash, essential food items and some other benefits.
"Any amount of pressure can be put on us for repatriation instead of harassing us by stopping distribution of relief cash and rations from the central government... It is an anti-human act and stepmotherly treatment by the governments," the statement said.
Special secretary, internal affairs, Mahesh Kumar Singla, who deals with the Bru repatriation process, had in December last year served a deadline till January this year for accepting a repatriation package, including a one-time cash grant of Rs 1.3 lakh, monthly aid of Rs 5,000 per repatriated family for two years and promise of jobs in central armed forces.
Bruno said they had written to the Prime Minister and home minister saying that stopping the cash aid and ration was a "deliberate tactic of the home ministry to harass camp inmates to force them to accept the repatriation package prepared by the government of Mizoram which is not realistic and sustainable".
The forum sought resumption of the cash aid and ration, and enhancement of assistance "as sworn by the central government" in an affidavit submitted in court in 2015 in a case between the Mizoram government and Akhil Bhartiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, an RSS affiliate.
They also sought allotment of five acres of land per family, cluster villages comprising not less than 500 families with basic amenities, cash assistance of Rs 10 lakh per family and housing assistance, among others, after their repatriation.
