Officials from Mizoram, Tripura and the Union Home Ministry are scheduled to meet on September 15 in New Delhi to discuss the way forward after tens of thousands of Bru tribals refused to return home despite a three-month long repatriation effort that concluded late last month.
The meeting comes after the various government entities submitted a report about the zero response to the repatriation process from Bru tribals, who live in six relief camps in Tripura, to the Social Justice bench of the Supreme Court.
As reported earlier, none of the 11,000-odd adult Brus with votes in Mizoram or their family members were willing to return home during the repatriation process after relief camp leaders publicly rejected the rehabilitation package offered by the MHA, which includes Rs 80,000 in cash, free rations for a year and finances to build houses with.
Brus fled Mizoram en-masse in 1997 following ethnic conflict. They have been confined to six relief camps by the Tripura government ever since, where they live on rations and without proper education and health facilities. They also do not have voting rights in Tripura.