BURHA PARA (TRIPURA), Dec 22: “I am more happy than you. Prime Minister Modi ji is also very happy that we could rehabilitate you after 40 years,” Union Home Minister Amit Shah told Bru tribal community members in this remote village on Sunday.
Shah said the central government, in association with the Tripura government, has been doing its best to rehabilitate the displaced Bru (Reang) families so that they can live with dignity in their homes.
He said he would go back with immense happiness that the Modi government has been able to successfully rehabilitate all the displaced Bru people in Tripura.
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“We have made available 25 types of livelihood opportunities for you. These include animal husbandry, dairy, honeybee keeping and millet farming,” he told the settlers.
Besides interacting with the villagers, the home minister visited several homes and enquired about people’s problems and the government benefits they were getting.
When a few residents told him that they had not yet received their Ayushman Bharat health cards, he assured them that all of them would get them within two days and instructed the district magistrate to ensure that.
Bru migrants from three districts of Mizoram — Mamit, Lunglei and Kolasib — came to North Tripura district in 1997, 1998 and 2009 due to serious ethnic violence between Bru and Mizo communities in Mizoram.
Uttam Kumar Reang told Shah that before the central government took steps for their rehabilitation, the Bru refugees were living in very pathetic conditions.
“Earlier we were living in jhuggis, but now we have concrete houses. We now have Aadhaar and voter cards. We have cast our votes in the past,” Reang said.
The Bru tribals were rehabilitated following a quadripartite agreement signed on January 16, 2020.
The pact was signed between the governments of India, Tripura and Mizoram, and representatives of Bru organisations for the permanent rehabilitation of Bru migrants in Tripura.
While about 70 per cent of the Bru (Reang) tribals are Hindu, the remaining are Christians.
A total of 12 locations were identified in Tripura’s North Tripura, Dhalai, Gomati and South Tripura districts for establishing resettlement colonies of Bru tribals. While nine of these are on forest land, three are on government land.
Settlement works are going on in these 12 identified locations, officials said.
As part of the agreement, 754 acres of land has been made available to resettle these families.
The final figure of families for rehabilitation under the agreement stands at 6,935 with a population of 37,584, the officials said.
Common development work like power lines, brick soling of internal roads, installation of deep tube wells for providing drinking water, building power infrastructure, connectivity to households, installation of solar street lights, opening of new fair price shops, anganwadi centres, schools and health sub-centres is almost complete in 11 locations.
The common developmental work in the last approved resettlement colony, Kala Lawgang in South Tripura district, is going on and is likely to be completed by the end of this financial year, according to the officials.
Overall, Rs 821.98 crore is being spent to resettle these families in the 12 colonies, an official said.
Of the total amount, Rs 793.65 crore is being borne by the Union home ministry and Rs 28.34 crore by the state government for common development works.
Till date, the home ministry has released Rs 693.13 crore, of which Rs 406.42 crore went directly to the beneficiaries under the direct benefit transfer. PTI
