People leave their villages after the ethnic clash in Meghalaya. File picture

Shillong, Jan. 14: An NGO, which worked with the government in rehabilitating refugees from the then East Pakistan to Garo Hills during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war for liberation of Bangladesh, has offered to assist the East Garo Hills district administration in helping victims of ethnic violence and to establish lasting peace.

Bakdil, an NGO based at Tura in West Garo Hills district, met East Garo Hills district deputy commissioner Pravin Bakshi and offered to re-build the houses of 46 displaced villages.

Bakdil is a Garo word, which means establishing fellowship, communion, unity and solidarity. The NGO hopes to establish lasting peace in the trouble-torn area in co-ordination with the district administration.

Father Sunny Joseph, the director of Bakdil, said over phone from East Garo Hills that a proposal had been already made to their funding partners to render assistance to rehabilitate the affected people by way of rebuilding their houses, irrespective of religious affiliations of the communities.

More than 40 villages have been badly affected in the violence. Rebuilding houses and livelihood promotion is the need of the hour, he said.

With its past record of providing relief to thousands of refugees, especially to those who came from the then East Pakistan in 1970s, the NGO hopes that it wiil be able to help the people this time too.

“We have our own relief programmes. We have visited the camps and provided warm clothes to the affected families,” he said.

Fr Joseph said they had organised many medical camps to help the Rabha and the Garo people. He said the NGO has a long-term plan to provide a development package to the affected people, but it all depends on the resources available.

He said any work under taken by Bakdil would be carried out in coordination with the district administration for the sake of transparency and accountability.

The example of partnership between the Church and the state machinery in 1970s worked wonders in properly rehabilitating the refugees from the then East Pakistan. Bakdil hopes to be help the Rabhas and the Garos this time. “Besides looking at the ways and means of rebuilding the houses, we have also decided to constitute peace committees involving both the Rabhas and the Garos for lasting peace,” Fr Joseph said.

He also favoured the idea of coordinating with the NGOs in Goalpara to bring back peace and harmony in both Assam and Meghalaya.

Appreciating the move of Bakdil, the East Khasi Hills district deputy commissioner, Pravin Bakshi, said he had suggested that Bakdil adopt the affected villages so that rehabilitation process could be systematic.

Bakshi said he wants to avoid the confusion that arose during rehabilitation of victims in the time of tsunami.

He said as many NGOs had came forward to help tsunami victims, there was duplication of work, resulting in irregularities. “What we suggest is that Bakdil can adopt villages till the villagers are properly rehabilitated in coordination with the administration,” he said.

At present the government provided Rs 10,000 and three CGI sheets per family each to rebuild the houses which were set on fire during the ethnic clash.

However, the government is welcome to get assistance from the NGOs and corporate houses so that the villagers can live in houses, to be built without further fear.

Three camps closed as nearly 2,900 people, mostly Garos from Assam, started moving out of the camps in East Garo Hills to their respective villages.

Three camps, one in Kharkutta and another two in Bajengdoba have already been closed down by the district administration out of the total 18.

“We will be closing down more camps in the days to come as people are keen to move out”, the deputy commissioner said.

The East Garo Hills district administration has also lifted the day curfew from today.

The deputy commissioner said with the improved law and order situation, curfew has been relaxed from 6am to 6pm and this would be in force in the coming days.

The first sanction of funds to rehabilitate people was Rs 50lakh and the government is likely to provide more assistance if required.

However, an official said lack of sufficient staff strength from the revenue department stands in the way of assessing the extent of damage caused because of the ethnic violence.