New Delhi: As many as 7,000 Bru refugees have begun a road blockade in Tripura, demanding that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) resume the supply of rations to refugee camps where displaced people are allegedly starving.
Local news reports quoted protesters as saying that a two-year-old child had died recently due to lack of food.
On October 21, three Bru refugee organisations had also submitted a memorandum to Union home minister Amit Shah, through the Kanchanpur sub-divisional magistrate, A. Baidya.
Since the Bru refugees fled from neighbouring Mizoram in 1997 following ethnic clashes with the majority Mizos and set up six camps in Kanchanpur and Panisagar subdivisions in Northern Tripura, the MHA has been allocating separate funds to the Tripura government to supply monthly rations to the community.
Though the government has taken up several rounds of their repatriation to Mizoram since 2010, over 30,000 Brus have stayed on in the camps demanding a better rehabilitation packages from the government.
In the end of 2018, prior to the assembly polls in Mizoram, the MHA mounted pressure on the community to return to their state. In July that year, an agreement was also signed with the Mizoram Bru Refugees Displaced Forum in New Delhi towards that end. However, on returning to the camps, the Forum walked out of the agreement as community members refused to agree to the terms mentioned in the rehabilitation package.
Also read: Afraid of Losing Identity, Bru Refugees Refuse to Return To Mizoram
Subsequently, the Election Commission set up polling booths in border areas of Mizoram and facilitated their voting, with help from the Young Mizo Association, the influential church-backed civil society body in the state.
On October 3, the government restarted the repatriation process. The supply of rations had stopped from October 1. The families were to get free ration for a period of two years on returning to Mizoram, aside from some monetary benefits.
Though some families have moved back, most have not, demanding that the MHA first meet their demands, including the creation of an autonomous district council within Mizoram under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. This demand has been rejected several times by the Mizoram government.
On October 8, when vehicles sent by Mizoram government arrived at the camps to take back the refugees, women carrying black flags launched into protests around them.
On October 21, alongside submitting a memorandum to the home minister, the refugees also informed the Kanchanpur DM that they would resort to a road blockade on October 31 as they had “no alternative but to block the main road and loot government godowns, etc.” for their survival.
According to a Tripura Times report, the refugees blocked the Dasda-Anandbazar Road on October 31. “We are hungry. First give us food, then talk about repatriation,” agitators were quoted as having said.
Though the local police chief and the SDM were spotted at the protest site, the report said the administration did not agree to the demands.