Agartala/Aizawl, Oct 1 (TIWN) Amidst an uncertainty and the pressure from the Tripura government, the Mizoram government has started taking back Reang tribal refugees (locally called ‘Bru’) from Tripura after 16 long years.

The refugees’ leaders firmly said that majority of the tribals are unwilling to return to their homes in Mizoram if their seven-point demands do not fulfill by the state government.

Kanchanpur sub-division’s (North Tripura) deputy collector Anupam Bhattacharjee said : “In all 561 men,women and children of 84 families have returned to their home state Mizoram by Monday afternoon. The district officials of the Tripura have provided logistical support in the repatriation process. This include arranging of vehicles.”

Mr Bhattacharjee said : “A meeting between the officials of Mizoram and Tripura governments on Sept 17 at Kanchanpur was decided to repatriate 121 families to their homes, but 84 families returned till Monday afternoon. We are not aware when the remaining tribal refugees would go back to their state.”

According to Tripura’s revenue and relief department secretary Swapan Saha the repatriation of the tribal refugees, sheltered in six Tripura camps for the past 16 years, resumed after two years following the continued pressure from the Tripura government to the Mizoram and Central governments.

Mr Saha while talking to reporters in Agartala said that the union home ministry has recently once again asked the Mizoram government to take back all the 37,000 tribal refugees, living in six makeshift camps in Kanchanpur sub-division of north Tripura, 180 km north of Agartala.

He said: “In a separate letter, Tripura Chief Secretary Sanjay Kumar Panda requested his Mizoram counterpart Mr L. Tochhong to take suitable steps so that refugees could go back home.”

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde in New Delhi in July and requested their intervention.

Mr Sarkar, also holds the home portfolio in Tripura, told both the Prime Minister and the union home minister that “continuous presence for over 16 years of refugees from Mizoram has been a matter of concern for Tripura”.

“The long stay has its own socio-economic and law and order problems. The state government is providing necessary support for early repatriation of these families. However, the process has been extremely slow,” said Mr Sarkar.

The leaders of the refugees have been sincerely demanding that without a official accord between the Central and the state governments of Mizoram and Tripura and also the tribal leaders, their return to homes and subsequent resettlement will remain indecisive.

Besides holding occasional protest rallies under the banner of Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF), the leaders of the refugees have sent several memoranda to the Prime Minister and the union home minister in support of their seven-point charter of demands.

The MBDPF President A. Sawibunga said : “Since beginning we have been demanding adequate safety and security of the returning refugees, free rations for two years and Rs 1.50 lakh financial aid to construct houses and to resume farming, allotment of lands to all the refugee families.”

Mr Sawibunga said that the union home ministry has sanctioned over Rs 85 crores for the rehabilitation of the repatriated refugees to Mizoram government, it sanctioned only Rs 80,000 for the construction of houses and resumption of cultivation and one year free ration instead of two years. “The amount is most inadequate.”

Accusing the MBDPF leaders, Mizoram government officials in Aizawl said that majority of the refugees willing to return to their homes but a section of refugee leaders misguiding them to stay back in Tripura making their life uncertain.

The Reang tribals, most backward among the tribal in northeast India, had escaped their villages in western Mizoram in October 1997 after ethnic clashes with the majority Mizos over the killing of a Mizo forest official.

Earlier, around 4,500 refugees had returned to their villages in 2010 and 2011 following continued persuasion by Mizoram, Tripura and home ministry officials. However, the process got stalled as majority of the evacuees reluctance to returned.