The Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF), apex body of Bru refugees lodged in six relief camps in Tripura, has revived their demand for a separate autonomous district council by filing a writ petition in the Supreme Court to this effect.
The writ petition, which called for creation of a separate autonomous district council for the Bru community, is a reversal of the letter written by the forum on May 4, 2016 to the Ministry of Home Affairs, in which it said that it was no longer pressing for autonomy for the community.
The MBDPF, in the petition, appealed to the apex court to direct the Government of India to establish an autonomous district council for the Bru community in accordance with Article 244(2) of the Constitution read together with the Sixth Schedule.
State Home Department officials expressed concern, saying the petition, if admitted by the apex court, might again derail the proposed repatriation process.
Meanwhile, the proposed physical repatriation of Bru families from the six relief camps in Tripura scheduled to commence from November 30 failed to take off due to several reasons, including absence of a formal decision from the Ministry of Home Affairs to fix the rate of enhancement of the rehabilitation package for the resettled Brus.
The identification process, conducted in the relief camps, was completed during November 2 to 23.
The officials identified 32,755 Brus belonging to 5,413 families as bona fide residents of Mizoram, while the state government had earlier proposed to repatriate around 21,000 people belonging to 3,445 families.
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