A large number of agitators demonstrated before the office of the deputy commissioner (DC) of Kolasib on the Mizoram-Assam border Wednesday demanding his removal for allegedly enrolling 218 new Bru voters without conducting hearing and physical verification.
This is the second instance of people demonstrating against a poll official in the northeastern state.
The protest and picketing was, however, called off in the evening by Kolasib unit of All NGO Coordination Committee, the apex body of civil societies and student bodies of the state spearheading the agitation, after a stay order by the Aizawl bench of the Gauhati High Court and holding talks with MKHC.
Mizoram police said the agitators held demonstrations in front of the office of the DC, Arun T, since morning though he did not attend office. They were demanding that the DC leave Kolasib immediately.
The deputy commissioner of a district is also its election officer for the assembly poll. Polling for the 40-member Mizoram Assembly is scheduled for November 28.
A delegation of the Mizoram Kohhran Hruaitute Committee(MKHC), a conglomerate of leaders of 16 major churches in the state, led by its general secretary Rev R Lalrinsanga had been sent by the state government to hold talks with the NGO Committee's Kolasib unit today.
The HC during the day restrained the Kolasib DC from publishing the final electoral roll pertaining to Bru voters lodged in the six relief camps in Tripura before Monday.
More From This Section
Justice Michael Zothankhuma of Aizawl bench heard the public interest litigation filed against the DC by the Committee's Kolasib unit and ordered issuance of notice to the DC.
Justice Zothankhuma said if the final electoral has been published, the DC should bring the voters lists to the court on Monday.
The Committee district unit had demanded that the deputy commissioner leave Kolasib district on or before 5 PM on Tuesday, sources in it said.
Thousands had organised a picket in front of the Chief Electoral Officer S B Shashank's office at Aizawl on November 6 and November 7 demanding his removal.
Shashank was forced to leave the state in the face of large-scale demonstrations and the Election Commission sent two high-level ECI teams on November 6 and November 9 to check the situation.
The Kolasib DC has been accused by the All NGO Coordination Committee, the apex civil society and students body, of enrolling 218 Brus lodged in the six relief camps in Tripura without conducting any hearing and ascertaining whether they were bona fide residents of Mizoram.
The leaders of the Committee's Kolasib unit have alleged that Arun T was trying to conceal his actions and that his efforts resulted in enlisting of Bru voters who could be suspected of "not being bona fide residents of the state", the Committee sources said.
The committee leaders in a letter accused the DC of lying a number of times and that the people of Kolasib district did not have confidence in him to conduct the election to the state assembly under his supervision.
Copies of the letter were sent to the state governor K Rajasekharan, chief secretary Arvind Ray and the CEO, the committee sources said.
The alleged actions of the DC had resulted in a mob attack on the office of the Kolasib deputy commissioner on the night of November 6 in which a few people, including Commandant of the first battalion of the India Reserve Police Lalthafamkima were injured and police resorted to teargassing.
The Mizoram Joint CEO, Zorammuana had issued an order to the Kolasib deputy commissioner on November 6, asking him to delete all the 218 names and conduct a public hearing in presence of village leaders and NGOs to ascertain the true identities of the newly-enrolled voters lodged in the Bru relief camps, officials said.
The talks held between the Committee's Kolasib unit and senior district police officials besides talks with the senior home department officials on Tuesday night had been inconclusive.
Civil societies in Mizoram have been demanding that Bru voters in the six relief camps in Tripura should exercise their franchise in Mizoram as laid down by law and committed by Election Commission of India in 2014.
They also demanded that all the eligible Bru voters should be enrolled in the voters lists in Mizoram only after they return to Mizoram not "surreptitiously inside the relief camps".
The face-off between the CEO, Shashank and the state government and civil society outfits took place after he complained against Mizorams principal secretary (home), Lalninmawia Chuaungo for allegedly interfering with the election process in the state.
Shashank had claimed that Chuaungo had played an active role in the revision of electoral roll of Bru refugees from Mizoram, who were forced to flee to Tripura after facing ethnic violence in 1997.
The complaint had led to the removal of Chuaungo, which irked the state government, political parties and civil society outfits in the state.
Massive protests were held against Chuaungo's removal outside the CEOs office in Aizawl and Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding Shashanks removal.