Aizawl, May 28 : Forty-nine displaced Mizo
families, driven out from Sakhan range in Tripura in 1998,
have been rehabilitated by the Mizoram government in Mamit
district on Tripura border, a top district official said
today.
Èach displaced family was given Rs 1.5 lakh as agreed
by the Union Home Ministry for rehabilitation and
resettlement, Deputy Commissioner Rodney L. Ralte today said.
Ralte said "the rehabilitation amount was disbursed
from the fund allocated for repatriation of the Bru refugees
from North Tripura relief camps and would be adjusted when the
Union Home Ministry provides for the package."
Displaced Mizo families, who had returned to Sakhan
range, were yet to be rehabilitated as the money was to be
disbursed through the Tripura government, senior home
department officials here said.
At least 83 Mizo families were driven out of the
orange-rich Sakhan range by Bru community in 1998 in the
aftermath of the communal flare-up in Mizoram due to the
murder of a forest guard inside the Dampa Tiger Reserve by Bru
militants on October 21, 1997.
The ongoing repatriation of Bru refugees was stalled
in June last year as all the major NGOs and political parties
insisted that displaced Mizos be first rehabilitated before
resumption of the repatriation process.
The repatriation process resumed from April 26 last
after Union Home Minister P Chidambaram promised that the
displaced Mizo families would be rehabilitated.