121 Bru families to return to Mizoram this week

AIZAWL: The Mizoram government has completed arrangements for resumption of repatriation of Bru refugees from relief camps in North Tripura district's Kanchanpur subdivision from Monday.
According to home department officials, elaborate arrangements have been made by the district administration of Mamit to receive 121 Bru families at Kanhmun and Zomuantlang facilitation camps in Mizoram and the process is likely to be completed in a week.
One of the officials said initially, the families would be lodged at the facilitation camps and Rs 5,500 would be given to each family as travel expenses.
The Tripura government has been requested to help the Bru families hire vehicles to travel to Mizoram, the official said. The Bru families, who have agreed to return to Mizoram on their own, are from Naisingpara and Asapara relief camps in Tripura. They will have to travel for about two hours to reach the facilitation camps in Mizoram.
State joint secretary for home Lalbiakzama said a certificate would be issued to each of these families and each of them would receive Rs 80,000 for rehabilitation and resettlement.
The Bru Coordination Committee, led by Elvis Chorkhy, will also coordinate and help officials at the facilitation camps besides assisting in the resettlement of the Bru families in the 15 designated villages, he added.
Several Bru families had migrated to Tripura in 1997 after Bru militants gunned down Lalzawmliana, a game-watcher, inside the Dampa Tiger Reserve in October, 1997. The first attempt to bring them back on November 16, 2009, not only failed but resulted in another exodus after Zarzokima, a Mizo boy from Bungthuam hamlet, had been killed by the Bru militants just three days before that.
Though the Union ministry of home affairs and the Mizoram government had worked out a road map for the repatriation, only 4,900 Brus have returned since 2010. In fact, only seven families returned last year as there was strong opposition from some Tripura leaders.