Mizoram will take back Reang refugees: Tripura CM

Agartala: Mizoram will soon take back around 35,000 Reang tribal refugees who have been staying in Tripura since 1997 after fleeing their state due to ethnic violence, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said on Wednesday.

"The Mizoram Chief Minister during his visit in north Tripura held a meeting with refugee leaders on January 8. He also asked the refugee leaders to study the proposed land and areas where the immigrants would be settled after their repatriation to Mizoram," Sarkar told reporters here.

He had on Monday held talks about the repatriation of tribal refugees with Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla in New Delhi.

Sarkar said: "I have also discussed about the Mizoram refugee repatriation with Union Home Secretary Gopal Krishna Pillai in New Delhi. Pillai will visit Tripura next month."

Over 35,000 Reang tribal refugees have been sheltered in six north Tripura camps since 1997 after they fled Mizoram following ethnic clashes with the majority Mizo community.

"The Mizoram Chief Minister assured us that he would call a Congress legislature party (CLP) meeting immediately to discuss the refugee repatriation issue," said Elvis Chorkhy, who led the three-member refugee delegation that met Lal Thanhawla in north Tripura last week.

Lal Thanhawla visited north Tripura's Mizo-dominated areas and participated in a Mizo cultural function. There are several thousand Mizos residing in north Tripura adjacent to Mizoram.

He had told reporters: "It was not possible to constitute an autonomous council for Reang tribals (locally called Bru) residing in Mizoram. The refugees came to Tripura voluntarily and they should go to their homeland willingly."

"A road map for the repatriation of tribal refugees from Tripura has been prepared and it was approved by the union home ministry," he added.

The tribal refugees are unwilling to return to their homes in Mizoram until their demands for fool-proof security and sufficient financial assistance are accepted by the state government.

"The Mizoram government's package for the home-bound refugees suggested a Rs 20,000 cash grant instead of Rs 50,000 as promised earlier. The package also recommended a scattered resettlement of the 35,000 tribal refugees in three different districts of Mizoram - Mamit, Kolashib and Lunglei. We want compact rehabilitation of the tribals in two districts in western Mizoram," Chorkhy told a news agency.

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Indian govt. should protect Chin refugees: HRW

New York (PTI): India should extend protection to Chin refugees fleeing "abuses and severe repression" in Myanmar, a leading international human rights group urged on Wednesday.

The Chin people, mostly Christians living in the remote mountains of northwestern Myanmar, are subject to forced labour, torture, extra-judicial killings and religious persecution by the country's military regime, New York-based Human Right Watch alleged.

It estimated that as many as 100,000 people had fled the Chin homeland into neighbouring India and urged the Indian government and the Mizoram state government to protect them and not to force them back into Myanmar.

"For too long, ethnic groups like the Chin have borne the brunt of abusive military rule in Burma," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "It is time for this brutal treatment to stop and for the army to be held to account for its actions. India should step forward to protect those desperately seeking sanctuary."

In the 93-page report HRW said, its findings were based on extensive research carried out from 2005 to 2008 among Chins currently living in Chin state and those who cross the border to Mizoram for trade, it said.

Others interviewed have fled the country permanently, most in recent years. It provides a rare glimpse into the plight of the "forgotten people."

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Manpower Crunch in NERO

SHILLONG, Jan 15 : With 80 projects to monitor in a year, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest North East Regional Office (NERO), headquartered in Shillong, is facing a manpower crunch that has impaired its effective functioning.

With a sanctioned staff of 32, the regional office is presently hugely understaffed as only 12 members are there to look after the eight Northeastern States.

The North East Regional Office set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 7 April, 1986 along with the regional offices in Bangalore, Bhubaneshwar, Bhopal and Lucknow doesn’t even have a regular Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF).

Very surprisingly 22 years after the regional office was set up, the Environment and Forest Ministry is yet to fill up 20 posts some of it at the very top level.

Considering that the mandate of the regional office created by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests is to monitor and evaluate ongoing forestry development projects and schemes with specific emphasis to conservation of forests, to undertake physical inspection of sites in cases of diversion of forest involving an area of more than 40 hectares, regional level technical and scientific consultation with the State advisory committee which are among some of the list of its job profile, the delay of appointing the required staff is perplexing.

At present the NERO CCF post is vacant with the Bhubaneshwar CCF RK Dey holding additional charge. He comes only for two days to Shillong office and inevitable all the files needing forest clearance get stranded in his office.

If adhoc arrangement of giving additional charge of NERO to the Bhubaneshwar CCF has been made then the second important post of Conservator of Forest is lying vacant.

NERO Deputy Conservator of Forest RL Sanga told reporters on Friday: “The shortage of manpower has certainly impact disposal of project proposals with the stipulated time frame of 45 days.

However, we try our best to perform up to our optimum.” In these 22 years of existence, NERO has approved 1,125 different projects and given the forests clearance in the eight Northeastern States.

According to Sanga, the job profile of NERO also involves traveling to different projects sites in the eight States — Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim. Inevitably, as there is manpower shortage, the effectiveness of this regional office is curtailed. NERO staff says that the position in other regional offices is far better as almost all the posts have been filled up.

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Mizoram is Spoken for : "The paradise in Mizoram"

 An excerpt from prateekvidya

Mizoram just tends to get counted among the 7 North Eastern Indian states… and is safely assumed as poor and disturbed by most people in the plains.. However, a visit to the place and you realise you got all your facts completely wrong..


Its very hard to believe a place like this can exist in India.. Unbelievable love, hospitability and serenity all around.. and herez all one can encounter durin their stay there..


The capital city Aizawl is entirely on the hills.. with the steepest roads of the country being its streets.. their homes are built on pillars which stand downhill.. so in many places you will find a person parking his car typically on his houses roof… then steppin down to enter the house..


The roads are so steep and the turns so risky that you cant drive a vehicle yourself.. and you cant really drive too many cars there.. Rule out the midsized.. rule out safaris and scorpios.. rule out even the santros and wagon R.. its just Maruti 800 which does rounds here.. as a personal car as well as taxis.. plenty of the plyin on these roads… no autos.. no other vehicles.. any bike has to be 120 cc or more.. scooters are painful but manageable.. and you only tend to realise the power of Maruti 800 there.. that babys got guts..


The people are extremely co-operative among themselves and hospitable to the people from outside.. of course they keep a stringent watch on outsiders for any unwanted activity they may indulge in.. Among themselves.. see a taxi graze another one and the drivers just responding by a smile.. a car waitin to let way to another one.. so much unlike other places where they scamper to rush in..
.. as for the hospitality front.. there is no attempt whatsoever by any of the shopkeepers to loot a tourist.. they are calm, peaceful.. and are selfless to suggest other shops if you are particularly interested in somethin.. the taxi drivers keep offerin u chips or candies or even cigarettes…

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