The preparations for the proposed final phase of Bru repatriation from North Tripura to Mizoram, from August 14 to September 10, have almost been completed, a senior Mizoram home department official said today.
The Brus are in six relief camps in North Tripura at present.
The district core committee on Bru repatriation along the Mizoram-Bangladesh-Tripura border in Mamit district, the Assam border in Kolasib district and in south Mizoram's Lunglei district were making arrangements to receive the 32,876 Brus belonging to 5,407 families and resettle them, the Additional Secretary for Home Lalbiakzama said.
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, Lalbiakzama said.
According to the agreement, inked in Delhi during the first week of July this year, between the Centre, the state governments of Mizoram and Tripura and the Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF), all Bru refugees were to be repatriated to Mizoram before September 30.
The MBDPF is the apex body of the Bru community in the relief camps.
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All the repatriated Bru families would get Rs 5,000 each through direct benefit transfer every month and a free ration for two years.
The Centre would deposit Rs 4 lakh in the bank accounts of each of the repatriated families and the money could be withdrawn after three years and a housing assistance to the tune of Rs 1.5 lakh would be disbursed to each family.
Thousands of Brus had been lodged in relief camps in Tripura since late 1997 in the wake of a communal tension triggered by the brutal murder of Lalzawmliana, a forest guard inside the Dampa Tiger Reserve on October 21, 1997 by Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF) militants.
The first attempt to repatriate them from November 16, 2009 not only failed but triggered another wave of exodus after Bru militants gunned down a youth at Bungthuam village three days before the commencement of the repatriation process.
Though some Bru families had already returned to Mizoram during a number of repatriation processes and on their own, many of them continued to refuse to leave Tripura till date despite many attempts.
Meanwhile, a large number of Bru families in the relief camps are likely to oppose the moves as they were making other demands and had forced MBDPF president A Sawibunga, one of the signatories of the July agreement to withdraw his signature.
MBDPF secretary Bruno Msha told PTI over phone from Naisingpara, the largest relief camp in North Tripura district, that many Bru families opposed the proposed repatriation process while some families agreed to return to Mizoram in accordance with the agreement.
Msha said that the situation in the relief camps is still extremely sensitive with some people vehemently opposing the repatriation.