india

Updated: Nov 20, 2019 19:04 IST

The scion of Tripura’s former royal family and Congress ex-president Pradyot Kishore Deb Burman has asked Union home minister Amit Shah to consider rehabilitation of Bru refugees in the state itself instead of sending them to back to Mizoram.

Claiming that the Bru community was part of the erstwhile princely state, Burman in his letter on Tuesday also appealed for their rehabilitation in cluster villages equipped with medical and educational facilities.

He also asked that the post repatriation package offered to the Brus by the Centre be redirected towards their settlement in Tripura instead.

Burman had earlier said that most of the Bru were displaced in the 1970s by the construction of the Dumbur dam, Tripura’s hydropower project.

“Tripura even gave refuge to Shah Shuja, who was escaping his brother Aurangzeb’s wrath and to lakhs of discriminated Hindus from East Pakistan and Bangladesh before and after partition. We have to give an option to our Bru to remain in the state, along with proper land and educational and health facilities,” he said in his letter which he also uploaded on Facebook.

The ninth phase of repatriation of Bru refugees from Tripura to Mizoram began on October 3 and will continue till November 30. More than 480 families have been sent back to Mizoram till now. Currently, nearly 4,000 Bru families are living at six relief camps in the state.

Since most Bru had refused to return to Mizoram, the Centre had stopped their food supply and a cash dole on October 1. The Bru claim that six persons died of starvation since then though the local administration place the figure at four.

Member both old and young of the Bru community blocked Dasda and Anandabazar road in Tripura’s Kanchanpur for seven days from October 31 in protest.

Burman had sent rice and other food items to the Brus during their agitation and had, at the time, first raised the demand that they remain in the state. The protest was halted after the Tripura government promised resumption of rations till November 30.

Nearly 5,000 Brus have been repatriated to Mizoram in eight phases since 2009.