Agartala: Tripura Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha asked the officials concerned to complete the Bru rehabilitation process by August this year while reviewing the progress of resettlement of Brus who fled away from Mizoram in 1997.
As per the quadripartite agreement signed in 2020, the Tripura government has started cluster-based resettlement of Brus in the Dhalai district since April last year. As of now, 1189 Bru families have been rehabilitated in the selected locations and house construction for 1477 families has already been completed.
The construction of houses and the development of facilities for 3145 families is underway. Tripura government has identified 37,136 Bru people of 6959 families residing in camps of North Tripura would be resettled in 12 different places of the state, as they declined to move back to their home state apprehending communal persecution.
Principal Secretary Revenue Puneet Agarwal said the Chief Minister asked the officials to take assistance from Bru leaders, local people, and local administration to meet up the deadline for resettlement. The Ministry of Home Affairs has made it clear if any Bru family fails to enroll their names for the rehabilitation process by August 31, they would not get any government facility.
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, financial aid of Rs 5,000 per month 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.
The Tripura state election department had recently enrolled 1,090 Bru voters in the state voter list, while another 1,786 Bru voters were applying for enrollment in Tripura electoral rolls. As many as 11,759 Bru voters, including 5,751 female who has been living in Tripura camps for over two decades were enrolled in the Mizoram’s electoral roll and now all would be enrolled voters of Tripura once moved to resettled locations.
According to the Principal Secretary, basic facilities like drinking water, electricity, road, and healthcare would be provided in the rehabilitation villages while financial assistance is being credited through Direct Benefit Transfer.
