The government received the lists submitted by the Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF) which conducted population survey of the refugees, through the Tripura government. The lists would be analysed by officials, Additional Secretary for Home TV Fambol told PTI.
The criteria to be included in the repatriation process would be inclusion in the Mizoram electoral roll and other documentary proof of being bona fide residents of Mizoram before they fled the state, Fambol said.
“Those included in the State voters’ lists and their children will be first repatriated,” he said. Other documentary proof like job cards under MGNREGS, ration cards would also be scrutinised.
The State government was also aware that there were many refugees in the Tripura camps coming from Assam to avail free rations and other benefits provided by the Union Home Ministry, he said.
According to the MBDPF President Elvis Chorkhy, there were 31,703 Bru refugees belonging to 5,448 families in six relief camps in Kanchanpur sub-division of North Tripura district.
The refugees migrated to Tripura in 1997 and in 2009, due to communal tension created by killing of two Mizos by Bru militants.