DHALAI: “Are you receiving 35 kg rations per family….and do you check if it’s actually 35 kg?” “Have all of you received your Ayushman scheme cards?”. “Does the school in your settlement here have teachers?” Home minister Amit Shah, here on Sunday to visit a Bru village in Bruha Para, put these queries to members of the Bru-Reang community now resettled in Tripura as part a quadripartite agreement signed in 2020.
The purpose was to take stock of the status of implementation of the resettlement package offered to Brus as part of the 2020 agreement among the Centre, Mizoram govt, Tripura govt and Bru-Reang organisations. The pact provided for permanent settlement and rehabilitation of 6,958 Bru-Reang families, comprising around 38,000 people, in Tripura, almost 25 years after they were displaced from Mizoram due to ethnic violence between the Mizo and Bru-Reang communities.
As the interaction between the home minister and Brus saw the latter appreciating the Govt of India for keeping its promises regarding housing, free ration supplies, schools, skill building and medical care etc, Shah said: “I am happier than you all are…Prime Minister Narendra Modi too is happy that he could ensure your permanent settlement in Tripura”.
The frank exchange between the home minister and Brus on Sunday also brought out a few areas with scope for improvement. Shah directed the accompanying officials to address the grievances and issues raised by the community members without any delay.
For instance, a community member told Shah that the 35 kg ceiling for rations per family was falling short for her 10-member household. “Why is there one ration card for a large family? As per the criteria adopted by govt of India, should it not be 35 kg or 5 kg per person in a large household?” he asked the officials. “Where is the PDS shop in charge? Call him. This should be corrected today itself,” Shah insisted.
Tripura chief minister Manik Saha later told TOI that these gaps were being suitably tackled.
Similarly, when the Bru members — a riot of colours in their traditional attire — replied in the negative to the home minister’s query on whether they all had Ayushman or CM Aarogya cards, both of which entitle them to free treatment up to Rs 5 lakh, promptly came his next instruction to the officers: “Issue the remaining cards in the next 2 days”.
A demand was raised by a woman community member to upgrade the school inaugurated within their relief camp, to Class 12th from Class VIII currently. As regards the demand for creating jobs for members of the community, Shah suggested that rather than waiting for jobs that are scarce, the skills and livelihood opportunities being imparted to them as part of the settlement package, should be used for self employment.
He said 25 new skills have been identified in which the Bru-Reang members will be trained and can take up self-employment and livelihood opportunities. These include dairy farming that will allow them to retain the profit, floriculture, beekeeping, handicrafts and millets farming, said Shah.
Asked about the status of their voting rights in Tripura, now their permanent home, the Brus happily updated Shah that they had voted in both in the Lok Sabha and assembly polls. “You must vote for BJP,” he said with a smile.
For Shah, it was instant connection with the Bru settlers as he broke security protocol to freely walk into their homes, constructed over 1200 sq ft area with Rs 1.5 lakh offered under the settlement package. He inspected the Aarogya Ayushman Mandir (a local health centre), anganwadi, vegetable market, PDS shop and handicrafts outlet and talked to Brus as he went around the settlement. The resident Bru-Reang community members could be seen clicking his pictures on their mobiles and chanting ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’.
Bru resettlement colonies, as part of the 2020 agreement, have been established at a dozen locations in Tripura — spread across North Tripura, Dhalai, Gomati and South Tripura districts — out of which nine locations are on forest land and three on government land.
