Mizoram deletes 11,000 Reang refugee names from voters list

A Correspondent

Agartala: Panic is prevailing among the inmates of the six Reang refugee camps in North Tripura district as the Election Department of the Mizoram Government, in a prompt move, has deleted names of over eleven thousand refugees from their voter list keeping only 1,168 voters who returned to Mizoram recently.

The action was taken by the Mizoram Election Department immediately after the Union Home Ministry signed a four-corner agreement assuring that the Reang refugees who came from Mizoram will be rehabilitated in Tripura. As Mizoram deleted their name and there is no such move in Tripura to enlist them, these people are now not voters of any State.

It has created uncertainty among the Reang refugees as despite the four-corner agreement, it is not yet clear where they will be rehabilitated and under which Assembly constituency their names will be enlisted. It is learnt that the State Government has asked all the eight District Magistrates to identify vacant lands to rehabilitate the Reang refugees but the task is very difficult and time consuming.

The Reang refugees are demanding rehabilitation in the places they are residing now but there is stiff resistance against it. Both the newly formed Kanchanpur Nagarik Manch, predominantly an organization of the local Bengalies and the Jampui Hills Mizo Convention are opposed to the move.

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