Agartala: Tripura Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha on Wednesday expressed his gratitude to Union Home Minister Amit Shah for extending the timeline for rehabilitation of displaced Brus of Mizoram in Tripura after reviewing the progress of resettlement in Delhi on Tuesday.
“The Union Home minister Shah has given in-principle approval to the state government’s proposal to extend the deadline for completion of the resettlement process and continue the work of providing financial assistance to the internally displaced Bru families of Mizoram in Tripura,” Dr Saha said.
Although a deadline was not fixed for completion of the rehabilitation, Shah advised the state government to finish the process at the earliest. He has agreed to continue extending financial assistance to the Bru families still living in the makeshift camps and awaiting being shifted to the designated villages.
Dr Shah held a detailed discussion with the Home Minister along with the officials of both centre and state over the request for an extension of the timeline to complete the resettlement. Altogether, 37,136 people from 6,159 families were found eligible for settling permanently after the quadripartite agreement by August this year, but so far, 3,332 families have been shifted.
A quadripartite agreement was signed in January 2020 among MHA, governments of Tripura and Mizoram, and Bru leaders to resettle the 37,136 displaced Bru people in 12 locations in four districts of Tripura and about 51 percent of the families were shifted to three locations.
The administration has been working on land leveling, brick soling of connecting roads, construction of internal link road, installation of drinking water facilities, power, Solar Street Lights, construction of common shelter houses with a common kitchen, construction of Common toilet blocks, construction of dwelling units with toilet for each family, setting up schools, Anganwadi and health centers in each of the selected areas.
As per the agreement, every Bru family living in the camps would get a 40×30 ft plot of land for building a pucca house besides, a fixed deposit of Rs 4 lakh, and monthly financial aid of Rs 5,000 with free rations supply for the next two years. The central government is providing an amount of
Rs 1.5 lakh to every family for housing.
The Centre had sanctioned a package of Rs 600 Cr for Bru settlement in Tripura. An amount of Rs 150 lakh was earmarked to the state government for land acquisition and the rest would be spent for the welfare of the Brus and the development of infrastructure in the localities.
