The Election Commission of India has accepted the suggestion of the Mizoram government that electoral roll revision for Bru community, lodged in the six relief camps in Tripura, would be conducted only after they return to Mizoram.
Principal secretary of home department, Lalnunmawia Chuaungo said that the Election Commission had earlier instructed the state election department to undertake a revision of voters’ lists in the Bru relief camps which the state government objected to, according to a news agency report.
The state government had suggested to the commission that the revision of electoral rolls should be taken up after the Brus return to Mizoram from Tripura, Chuaungo said.
Civil societies have all along been objecting the conduct of revision of voters’ lists and exercise of franchise by displaced Bru people in the relief camps outside the state.
He said that the repatriation of Brus lodged in the six relief camps is scheduled to commence from August 14 and would be completed by September 10 and preparations were in full swing in the three districts where the repatriated Brus were proposed to be resettled.
At least 32,876 Brus belonging to 5,407 families would be resettled in 48 villages in Mamit district, 10 villages in Kolasib district and four villages in Lunglei district.
The state government would go ahead with the roadmap for Bru repatriation approved by the Centre and following the agreement inked between the centre, Mizoram and Tripura state governments and the Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF) apex body of the Bru refugees in the relief camps on July two, even if the inmates are not willing to return to Mizoram, he said.
The Centre had convened a meeting of chief ministers of Mizoram and Tripura on July 2 in which it was agreed that repatriation of all the 32,876 Brus belonging to 5,407 families lodged in the six relief camps should be completed by September 30.