AGARTALA, August 13 (TIWN): The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) deferred the scheduled visit of a delegation to the Reang displacement victims’ transit camps in North Tripura district from August 19 to August 25, Secretary of Relief and Rehabilitation Swapan Saha said. A single bench of the High Court of Tripura on May 09 ordered to form a committee for visiting the Reang displacement victims living in relief camps of North Tripura district.

The order came as a derivative of a petition filed with the HC in April earlier this year. The petition alleged that the displaced persons were living in subhuman condition for the past seventeen years. Justice Subhasish Talaptra passed the order following which a communication from the MHA said that an official delegation from different ministries pertaining to the case would visit the transit camps in Tripura from August 19.

Speaking to reporters at the civil secretariat here this evening, Relief and Rehabilitation secretary Swapan Saha said that the visit was rescheduled and postponed till August 25. The visit headed by MHA additional secretary Rajib Gouba would visit different relief camps till August 28, he said.

The team comprising of MHRD joint secretary Seshu Kumar, Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Empowerment Mukut Singh and representatives of three activist forums from West Bengal, Assam and Delhi would be visiting the camps to find out the actual condition of camp life, facilities provided to the camp inmates, health and sanitation facilities provided to them and the level of education imparted to children in the camps, Relief secretary Saha said.

The petition filed in the High Court reportedly made all its allegations based on a recent report of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Kanchanpur. The report from office of SDM dated February 21, 2014 said that over 14 thousand inmates are currently living in Naisinghpara relief camp with 4 sanitary toilets, more than 5,000 inmates are living in Longtraikami camp with no toilets, 2,700 inmates are living in the Hazacherra camp with no toilet facility.

The MHA team is expected to visit the camps and assess living conditions of the camp inmates on a realtime basis.