Bru refugees not willing to vote in Kanhmun village

AGARTALA: The Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Coordination Committee (MBDPC) has expressed its opposition to the Election Commission’s (EC) decision to set up polling stations at Kanhmun village in Mizoram’s Mamit district to facilitate voting of Bru refufees lodged in relief camps of Tripura.

A five-member team of Mizoram officials, headed by additional chief electoral officer Krishna Mohan Uppu, held a meeting with

North Tripura district

administration officials at Kanchanpur on Sunday to discuss the EC’s decision to set up 15 polling stations at Kanhmun. But the MBDPC representatives present at the meeting demanded that polling stations should be set up in the refugee camps as the Brus will find it difficult to travel all the way to Kanhmun on polling day.

According to reports, the officials made it clear that the decision can’t be changed as the EC considered the demand for setting up polling booths at Kanhmun, which is the closest possible location from the refugee camps, despite opposition from various organisations in Mizoram. “Kanhmun is the most convenient location for the Bru inmates. Moreover, we can’t set up polling booths without having minimum facilities. We have requested them to come and vote. The North Tripura district administration has been requested to facilitate the travel of Bru voters,” said an official.

NGOs and social orgaizations in Mizoram are opposing the EC’s decision for making special arrangements for Bru voters and demanded that they should be allowed to vote only if they return to their homeland.

On Monday, election officials here stated that the Tripura administration would provide vehicles so that Bru voters can exercise their franchise on April 11 at Kanhmun, about 30 km from the camps, located in Panisagar subdivision.

On the other hand, the ministry of home affairs (MHA) has convened a meeting in Delhi on Tuesday to finalise the Bru repatriation process. Earlier, the MHA had fixed a deadline of September, 2018, for completing the Bru repatriation process.