• Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura 

Agartala, February 10, 2022 : Almost after a span of 24 years, the resettlement process of Bru Internally Displaced People (IDPs) had begun in five districts of Tripura and so far, 1,454 families had relocated permanently out of 4,900 families comprising 32,000 people.

More than 37,000 Bru people fled from Mizoram to Tripura following alleged violence and they took shelter along Kanchanpur and Panisagar sub-divisions of North Tripura district. After the Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb led government formed in the state, a historic agreement was signed between the representatives of the central government, Tripura government, Mizoram government, and organization of BRU IDPs on January 16, 2020.

As per the agreement, the process of permanent resettlement of Reang refugees on Tripura started and the central government sanctioned a special package of Rs 600 crore to the Tripura government.

Manas Dev, Officer on Special Duty for Tripura BRU Rehabilitation and Relief Project told Northeast Today that the second phase of the resettlement process had already started by the government while the third phase would be the final phase of the process of relocating these people.

He said “The government marked the project as one of the priority schemes of the state government. The first phase is almost over and we have already started the second phase of the resettlement process. At present, first and second phase are running parallel and shoulder to shoulder, measures have been initiated for the resettlement process in third phase”.

“Till now, 1,000 permanent houses have been constructed and beneficiaries have already started their livelihood while the government had extended the financial benefits like Rs 4 lakh fixed deposit, Rs 5,000 financial aid per month, free ration for two years and Rs 1.5 lakh to build their own house”, he added.

Citing the statistics of the second phase, Dev asserted that the work is going on at three locations including Kalajhari area under Amarpur sub-division of Gomati district, Hampsapara under Panisagar sub-division and Bhandarima-Pushpaban Para under Kanchanpur sub-division under North district. The financial aid as first instalment for construction of individual houses in the second phase has been already released.

The official said “The third phase will start once the Forest department gives approval for the proposed reserved lands under their jurisdiction. This phase will be the final one for the resettlement procedure. It is expected that the remaining works will complete within a year”.

A total of 14 locations in Gomati, North and Dhalai district of the state have been allotted by the Tripura government.

Its reported that a total of 1,607 families were targeted in four places under North Tripura and Dhalai districts for the first phase of the project. Among them, 1,454 families have already been relocated along these concerned places, while 987 families had already received all the three installments for the house building, and 1,206 families and 1,486 families received second and third installments respectively.

In two parts of North Tripura district, work in the second phase has started and a total of 1,327 families are targeted to be resettled while the grand total for the second phase is 2,934 families.