2-Year-Old's Death Causes Panic in Bru Camps, Demand Continues for Free Ration & Cash Doles

Agartala, November 3, 2019:

The displaced Bru refugees from Mizoram have been organizing 'road block' since October 31 against the Government's move to discontinue ration and cash dole to the refugees living in camps.

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A source told Inside Northeast, "It is indefinite how long this demonstration shall be last. Two children, two elderly women and an elderly man have already passed away due to starvation, but no national media and local media have not been giving coverage to this."

2-year-old John Chongprengh, son of Dolendro Chongpreng, was among the deceased, and according to reports, many of the people protesting the Government's move to discontinue ration and cash haven't had a single morsel in over a week.

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The Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF) alleged that the people in the camps had died of "starvation" after the Centre "stopped providing free ration and cash dole" to the inmates of the relief camps from last month after the commencement of the ninth repatriation process on October 3.

Meanwhile, Kanchanpur Sub-divisional Magistrate Abhedananda Baidya and said that "an infant and a 60-year-old woman" died in the Naisingpara relief camp but the "cause of death has not been ascertained" as an inquiry is being conducted.

The repatriation process has been initiated to bring back 4,447 Bru families living in the Tripura relief camps since 1997.

The Centre has approved Rs 350 crore for the ninth phase of repatriation and the amount covers transportation and rehabilitation package expenses, which include Rs 5,000 per month for each resettled Bru family in Mizoram and free ration for them for two years.

The vexed Bru problem started when the Bru people started demanding a separate autonomous district council by carving out areas of western Mizoram adjoining Bangladesh and Tripura in September, 1997.

The situation was made worse by the murder of a forest guard in the Dampa Tiger Reserve in western Mizoram by Bru National Liberation Front insurgents on October 21, 1997.

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