Centre stops free ration to Bru refugees

Guwahati, October 1, 2018:

The Central government stopped giving free ration to the Bru refugees of Mizoram from Monday as they refused to be repatriated.

The refugees are lodged in six relief camps in Tripura. In July, they had signed an agreement with the Central, Mizoram and Tripura governments that said the over 32,000 refugees will be repatriated by September 25.

Official sources in Tripura told InsideNe that the refugees had been informed of the suspension of ration by the government. There are 5,407 refugee families in the relief camps in Tripura but only 45 of them returned to Mizoram since August 15 when the repatriation process started.

Under the free ration scheme, an adult refugee is given 600 grams of rice per day; it is 300 grams for a minor. Also, a refugee, irrespective of his or her age, gets seven grams of salt a day.

Meanwhile, the refugees have sought more time from the Centre for repatriation even as they insisted on the solution to certain issues and problems.

“Why has the government stopped the ration to refugees? They will now face a lot of difficulties. This is a violation of human rights. When such a large number of people are to be repatriated, the government should give more time. The refugees will return to Mizoram but there are some issues and problems which need to be sorted out. The issues are within the parameters of the agreement the refugees had signed,” Bru leader Sawibunga said.

“We will sit down and discuss our future course of action. It is too early to say if we will resort to protests against the government’s action,” he said.

Earlier, the refugees had demanded an area development council for the Brus in Mizoram, their settlement in cluster of villages, Rs.4 lakh compensation to each family before repatriation etc.

Over 40,000 Brus had fled Mizoram during their ethnic riots with Mizos in 1997. Over the past few years, a few thousand of them returned to Mizoram.