Over 1,900 repatriated Bru families in Mizoram have demanded equal rehabilitation package along with the Bru families in Tripura, a Bru leader said on Monday.

Equal Package Demand Committee (EPDC), the Bru group representing the repatriated Bru families of Mizoram, submitted a representation to governor P.S. Sreedharan Pillai recently seeking his intervention to take up the matter with the Union home ministry, the committee chairman Elvis Chorkhy told The Telegraph.

He said more than 1,900 Bru families from Tripura have returned to Mizoram during formal repatriation exercises conducted by the Centre and the Mizoram government between 2010 and 2018.

“The Bru families returned to Mizoram from their transit camps in Tripura with assurance by the Centre to take care of their all-round development,” he said.

Chorkhy alleged that only Rs 80,000 in cash and free rations for one year were given to the Bru families, who have been repatriated between 2010 and 2018.

The quadripartite agreement among the Centres, government of Mizoram and Tripura and Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF) on July 3, 2018, has increased the quantum to rehabilitation package to tune of Rs 6.7 lakh excluding free ration for two years, which created huge gap between old repatriated families and new ones or those who will permanently live in Tripura in term of packages, he said.

He said the committee has made several appeals to the Centre for equal package but to no avail.

According to Chorkhy, the governor has assured them to take up the matter with the Union ministry of home affairs.

Thousands of Brus fled Mizoram and migrated to Tripura fearing ethnic tension triggered by the murder of a Mizo forest guard in 1997.

The Centre and governments of Mizoram and Tripura had made at least nine attempts to repatriate them between 2009 and 2019, which yield little results.

From October to November last year, about 1,165 Bru people belonging to 289 families of over 4,400 have returned to Mizoram during repatriation.

On December 16, 2019, a four-cornered agreement was signed among the Centre, Mizoram and Tripura governments and Bru groups to end more than a two decades-old imbroglio over Bru repatriation.

According to the agreement, over 35,000 Bru families, who failed to returned before November 30, will settle permanently in Tripura.

The agreement also said the Centre would provide rehabilitation to the tune of Rs 4 lakh each to Bru families and land for constructing house.

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 Tripura government will conduct identification of the Bru refugees and all the relief camps will be closed down after completion of resettlement, the agreement said.