In a day the Mizoram government said it would go ahead with the agreed plan to repatriate the Bru refugees from Tripura, a new association of the refugees today demanded an Area Development Council (ADC) for Brus after the repatriation.
The Mizoram Bru Displaced Peoples' Coordination Committee (MBDPCC) submitted a memorandum demanding an ADC to the Dasda BDO for Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
The refugees living in six relief camps of North Tripura district have demanded the ADC for their security and development once they would be back home, MBDPCC president L Laldingliana told PTI.
"Our long standing demands like creation of Area Development Council, allotment of 5 hectare land to each family and formation of cluster village were rejected in the four-corner agreement signed in New Delhi. This agreement has caused panic for the inmates of the camps," Laldingliana said.
The new body criticized Mizoram Bru Displaced Peoples Forum (MBDPF), the apex body of the refugees which signed the quadripartite with the Centre, and state governments of Mizoram and Tripura on July 3.
The refugees organized a rally today and submitted the memorandum to the BDO there.
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MBDPF secretary Bruno Msha said his organization has no connection with the new committee.
Meanwhile at a meeting in Aizawl, state Home Minister R Lalzirliana informed political parties and civil societies of the state that the repatriation would begin as per schedule on August 14 and was expected to be completed by September 10.
Lalzirliana said the state government recently received instructions from the Election Commission to conduct revision of voters' lists in the relief camps, while its earlier order had asked conducting the revision in Mizoram after completion of the physical repatriation process.
"We have to implement the instructions of the Election Commission of India by conducting the electoral roll revisions in the relief camps," he said.
The civil societies and the political parties, however, were not happy with the latest instruction of the EC.
"We decided that the Election Commission would be approached again so that the entire electoral process should be conducted within the state," said TA Vanlalruata, president of central committee of the Young Mizo Association, a civil society organisation.
The Centre, state governments of Mizoram and Tripura and the Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF), the apex body of the Bru community in the relief camps, have on July 3 signed an agreement for repatriation of all the Bru refugees from Tripura before September 30.
According to the agreement, Rs 4 lakh would be deposited in the account of the head of each repatriated Bru family, which would mature after three years, and a payment of Rs 1.5 lakh as housing assistance.
Each repatriated Bru family would also be given Rs 5,000 through Direct Benefit Transfer every month and free ration for two years.
Altogether 32,876 Brus belonging to 5,407 families are lodged in six relief camps in Tripura.
While 4,199 Bru families would be resettled in 48 villages in Mamit district, 824 and 384 families would be resettled in 10 villages Kolasib and four villages in Lunglei districts respectively, Mizoram Additional Secretary for Home Lalbiakzama had said on Monday.
The Brus are in Tripura since late 1997 in the wake of a communal tension triggered by the murder of a forest guard inside the Dampa Tiger Reserve on October 21, 1997 by Bru National Liberation Front militants.
The first attempt to repatriate them in 2009 failed and triggered another wave of exodus after the killing of a youth three days before the commencement of the repatriation process.
Though some Bru families had returned to Mizoram during a number of repatriation processes and on their own, many of them refused to leave Tripura.
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