Bengali refugees in Tripura reject package offer, to go for agitation

A Correspondent

Agartala: The Bengali refugees of Kanchanpur in Tripura who are camping in the Ananda Bazar police station for the last 70 days have expressed grave anguish over the fact that Governor Ramesh Vais has spent two days at Jampui Hills but “never felt the need” to see the refuges spending life in “inhuman conditions” only 25 km away.

Four hundred seventeen refugees belonging to 93 families also rejected an unspecified package offer by the Deputy Speaker of the State Assembly Biswa Bandhu Sen when he said that the Chief Minister has offered some package and requested them to return to their homes.

The refugees stuck to their demand that they must be given a package equal to that offered to the Reang refugees from Mizoram. It may be recalled that a group of Reang refugees attacked the houses of Bengalis on December 10 in the name of agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

The government has sanctioned relief for these refugees at the rate of Rs 7.80 per head which is too inadequate. Meanwhile, many of the inmates of this camp fell ill and are spending days in penury.

Meanwhile, the Kanchanpur Nagarik Suraksha Manch, an organization of local people formed after the December 10 violence, has declared that they will resume their agitation after February 21 if the government fails to announce any comprehensive package for the refugees and others who suffered losses during the violence and appropriate action is not taken against the persons involved in the violence.

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