AIZAWL: Names of more than 1,000 Bru voters who have settled in neighbouring Tripura, have been removed from Mizoram voter list, an election official said on Thursday.
Thousands of Bru people have been lodged at Tripura transit camps for over two decades after they fled Mizoram fearing ethnic tension triggered by the murder of a Mizo forest official by the ertswhile Bru militants in 1997.
Mizoram joint chief electoral officer David Liansanglura Pachuau told PTI that a total of 1,044 Bru voters from nine assembly constituencies in three Mizoram districts, have been removed from the state's voter list till July 4.
He said that the deletion was done based on the corresponding deletion requests sent by Tripura's election department.
Of the 1,044 Bru electorates, 882 belonged to three assembly constituencies in Tripura border Mamit district, while 152 belonged to three assembly constituencies in Assam border Kolasib district and another 10 voters hailed from three constituencies in Lunglei district, he said.
He said that names of other Bru voters are being processed for deletion and they will be removed from the state's voter list once their names appeared on Electoral Roll Officer Net (ERONET).
Pachuau said that the Bru voters, who have been re-settled in Tripura and enrolled in that state's voter list, would be defranchise from Mizoram's electoral roll accordingly whenever a corresponding deletion request is received from the neighbouring state.
According to Mizoram election department, as many as 11,759 Bru voters, including 5,751 female voters from three districts, who have been in transit camps and already allowed to resettle in Tripura, were enrolled in Mizoram voter list.
The Centre and governments of Mizoram and Tripura had made at least nine attempts to repatriate the Bru tribals from Tripura between 2009 and 2019.
However, only about 11,000 Bru people had returned to Mizoram during such repatriation exercises.
As per the agreement signed among the Centre, governments of Mizoram and Tripura and representatives of Bru organisations in January 2020, the resettlement of more than 35,000 displaced Bru tribals in Tripura is under process.
The agreement said that the Centre would provide rehabilitation to the tune of Rs 4 lakh each to Bru families and land for constructing houses.
The Bru families will also be provided housing assistance of Rs 1 lakh each, Rs 5,000 and free ration to each family monthly for two years, which will be given through Direct Beneficiary Transfer scheme, the agreement said.
The Tripura government will conduct identification of the Bru refugees and all the relief camps will be closed down after the completion of resettlement, it added.