By Sujit Chakraborty Agartala 4th September : Ethnic tensions have come back to life in Tripura with those from the Mizo and Bengali communities reviving their fervent opposition to Tripura government’s ongoing efforts to restore over 37,000 Reang tribals who were exiled from Mizoram twenty-five years ago due to ethnic conflicts in the state that is adjacent to it.
The planned goal for the relocation of 37,000 Reang tribesmen by August 31 is not likely to be met due to new challenges and threats of opposition to the rehabilitation, and other issues.
The most violent ethnic conflict in history in connection with the rehabilitation of the exiled Reang tribes in December 2020 killed two people and left scores injured in an interstate blockade in northern Tripura.
The Joint Movement Committee (JMC) is an apex organ of diverse organizations including the Nagarik Suraksha Mancha (NSM) and the Mizo Convention, is spearheading the protests against the “unplanned rehabilitation of Reang tribals that threaten the security and livelihoods as well as the economic living conditions of the native people of Kanchanpur”.
The JMC leaders organized several series of meetings over the past two weeks to draw out their agitation plan.
NSM President Ranjit Nath said that violating the earlier agreement that the government of the state, who had already has rehabilitated the 540 families in the Kanchanpur sub-division, has made a decision to assist around 1,250 additional Reang tribes in various villages of the same sub-division.
“Proposed relocation of 1,250 tribes in the tiniest areas of Kanchanpur could endanger every aspect of the native Bengali, Mizo and other tribals living in peace in Kanchanpur for a number of years,” Nath told IANS.
“We are not opposed to the resettlement of Reang tribes in Tripura however, it shouldn’t be at the expense of the people of indigenous origin of the state.
We have urged authorities to settle Reang tribes in various districts to ensure the balance of population,” he added.
The NSM President stated that they had shared their opinions with the Chief Minister Manik Saha, Central Minister Pratima Bhowmik as well as the local MLAs and leadership.
“If the government stays firm on its stance we’ll soon begin protests against such unjust and unscientific rehabilitation programs,” Nath said.
More than 38,072 Reang tribal migrants, which comprised 7364 families, stayed in seven camps in northern Tripura’s Kanchanpur and the nearby Panisagar sub-divisions since 1997, after the ethnic conflict were first reported in Mizoram.
About 6,367 tribals returned to Mizoram in eight phases following the Central, Mizoram and Tripura governments tried numerous times to bring the tribals from Tripura to Mizoram between 2009 and 2019.However, most (37,136 tribals, comprising the 6,959 families) of the migrants were unwilling to go back to the state they had left unless their needs for security and livelihoods, were met.
A quadripartite agreement was concluded in January 2020 by the Centre, Tripura and Mizoram governments as well as the Reang tribal leaders to relocate the 37,136 tribal migrants in the 12 or 13 places in four districts of Tripura before August 31, 2022.
The Reang tribe, locally referred to as “Bru” were included in the voting system in Tripura as stated in the agreement, following which the Centre had announced an amount of Rs 600 crore to settle the issue of the Reang tribals, who are recognized as a tribe of primitive origin in Tripura.
In accordance with the agreement which was signed in the presence of Chief Ministers of Tripura and Mizoram and Union Home Minister Amit Shah Each Reang tribe will be eligible for the one-time assistance of Rs 4 lakh as a an installment for two years and an area of land in clusters of 30×40 feet to allow the construction of houses and house building assistance of in the amount of Rs 150,000 and daily cash assistance of Rs 5,500 for a period of two years and a free food and rations for two years starting beginning on the date of resettlement.
In accordance with the agreement, additional basic facilities , including education for the children of the tribe will be also provided.
The Election Commission has also started the process of removing names of Reang tribesmen off the list of voters of Mizoram following the tribals who had been displaced were settled in various districts of Tripura and will include them in the state’s voters list.
Officials of the Mizoram election department stated they had decided in talks with the Election Commission, names of hundreds of voters from the Reang tribe have been removed in three districts of Mamit, Kolasib and Lunglei.
The process of deletion was initiated following a notification by the Tripura poll panel.The process will continue until the entire process has been completed.
Officials of Mizoram election department stated that approximately 11,760 Reang tribal voters, which includes 5,750 females who were residing in seven camps in Tripura and are currently being relocated in the state were previously enrolled in the voter lists of various districts of Mizoram.
A representative of the Tripura panel of voters confirmed that, in accordance with the agreement reached in January 2020, Reang tribals, whose names were removed from the Mizoram electoral list, will be added in the voter lists of Tripura following the process as per the agreement.
(Sujit Chakraborty is available to be contacted via [email protected])
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