Bru resettlement issue: Tripura govt’s decision draws flaks, JMC stages indefinite hunger strike
AGARTALA | JUNE 12, 2020:
The Mizo Convention of Jampui Hills along with the Nagarik Suraksha Mancha of Kanchanpur staged an indefinite hunger strike since Wednesday, June 10, at Kanchanpur, which is located in North Tripura. The two groups have also joined hands to form the Joint Movement Committee to address the issue of resettlement of the Bru people in Kanchanpur sub-division.
Speaking to The Northeast Today (TNT), Dr. Zairemthiama Pachuau, Chairman of the Joint Movement Committee and General Secretary of the Mizo Convention, said that the indefinite hunger strike is to register their protest against the government's decision of resettlement of the Bru people at five provisionally selected sites of Kanchanpur sub-division, out of a total 12 selected sites.
"The Bru people came to Tripura in 1997 due to ethnic clashes in Mizoram. For the last 20 years the Bru people have been staying in refugee camps in Kanchanpur sub-division, North Tripura. But on 16th January, 2020 an agreement was signed between the Bru leaders and the government of India and with state governments of Tripura and Mizoram, for the permanent settlement of the Brus in Tripura. Now we came to know that out of 12 sites which have been provisionally selected by the Tripura government, five of them comes under Kanchanpur sub-division which are Gachirampara Central Catchment Reserve Forest (CCRF), Ananda Bazar CCRF, Manu Chailengta RF, Paschim Hmunpui Mouza and Behliangchhip Mouza which might comprise 35% of their total population and surprisingly, the government took the decision without taking us into confidence," said Dr Pachuau.
He further added by saying, "The entire Kanchanpur sub-division is already a densely populated area. The Mizo population here have been preserving the ecology and the environment for centuries now. But there has been a lot of pressure on the ecology from the Bru people as they are engaged in 'Jhum Cultivation' and they used to accidentally or sometimes intentionally destroy our farm lands and orchards during the burning of their jhum land. So, we the Joint Movement Committee which comprises of the Mizo Convention, backed by the Mizo people of Jampui Hills and the Nagarik Suraksha Mancha of Kanchanpur, want a successful, peaceful and sustainable solution to the rehabilitation problem of the Bru people but their rehabilitation must not trouble the original inhabitants of the land. We want the government to uniformly allocate the Bru people in other sub-divisions of the state. We have been bearing the burden of hosting them for almost 23 years now. We have repeatedly apprised the government about our demands. We have even submitted memorandums to the Chief Minister, the Deputy Chief Minister, the Governor of Tripura and even to the Chief Secretary of Tripura but we have not received any positive reply from any corner yet."
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Dr. Pachuau fears the possibility of future clashes between the Bru and the Mizo people of the sub-division due to their past history of ethnic clashes. He elaborated by saying, "It is ironic that the state government of Tripura is deciding to permanently settle so many Bru people near the Mizo population despite knowing that the Brus came from Mizoram due to ethnic clashes with Mizos. So, it is quite natural that they have the hatred for us and we have been facing the brunt of it for more than two decades. The Bru people mostly the youths are involved in numerous anti-social activities as they didn't have proper education and health care facilities in the refugee camps where they grew up."
Meanwhile, the Nagarik Suraksha Mancha of Kanchanpur, which is also a member organisation of the Joint Movement Committee, also considered the decision of the Tripura government to rehabilitate Bru refugees in Kanchanpur Sub-division "unfair" and stated that the Bru people must be resettled somewhere else.
"The Bru people, who came from Mizoram, have done a lot of atrocities on the Bengalis of Kanchanpur as well as on the Mizo population of Jampui Hills. Because of their terror, 6 Mizo villages and 13 Bengali villages in Kanchanpur sub-division had to be evicted. Last year, during a protest rally against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), they looted and burned many shops at Ananda Bazar area. 93 families had to leave their houses. But till now, no action was initiated against them. So the Nagarik Suraksha Mancha along with Mizo Convention under the banner of Joint Movement Committee have called for an indefinite hunger strike to pressurize the government to fulfill our demand," said Ranjit Nath, the President of the Nagarik Suraksha Mancha.
Recently, the Tripura royal scion, Pradyot Manikya Debbarman issued a statement on the issue, calling upon indigenous people across Northeast to be united whether it is land rights, culture, history or for the preservation of our future. "The divide and rule policy by a few is the reason there were some unfortunate comments made some leaders recently," he had said.
It may be mentioned that Mizoram chief minister, Zoramthanga had, last month, requested his Tripura counterpart Biplab Kumar Deb to reconsider the plan of rehabilitating 34,000 odd displaced Brus in Mizo dominated areas.
He also addressed the ethnic tension and upheaval between Mizos and Brus, both in Mizoram and Tripura. He also wrote that in case of any strain between the two communities in Tripura, there will be repercussions in Mizoram and vice versa.
Earlier, a decision was taken to repatriate Bru families with a convincing package of rehabilitation in three districts of Western and Northern parts of Mizoram but Brus did not agree with the plan and demanded cluster-based rehabilitation of their choice and a provision of a Separate Autonomous District Council (ADC) for Brus, which was not acceptable to the Mizoram government.
