: The government apologised to the Supreme Court for its “highly objectionable” comments that making life better in refugee camps for over 5,000 Bru tribal families, who fled ethnic violence in Mizoram 23 years ago, will only encourage them to continue in the camps than go back.
The minority Reang (Bru) tribes had escaped ethnic tension in Mizoram and migrated to northern Tripura from October 1997. They have since then been sheltered in six relief camps in Kanchanpur and Panisagar sub-divsions in north Tripura.
On Friday, the government was left red-faced when Justice Madan B. Lokur, who heads the Social Justice Bench, read out from a written note submitted on behalf of the Ministry of Home Affairs detailing the government’s welfare measures for the refugees.
The hearing was on petitions filed by Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and Asian Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, in 2005 and 2007 respectively, seeking steps to rehabilitate the refugee families and provide them with basic amenities .
Trouble started for the government when Justice Lokur, on perusing the note dated January 6, slammed the ministry’s version of giving a helping hand to the displaced families in the camps.
“You give them just one soap for the entire year? Then, one T-shirt and one pant piece for the whole year. Is one soap enough for the whole year? Is there no dignity left to spare for human beings in this country?” Justice Lokur asked the government.
Then the Bench, also comprising Justice U.U. Lalit, drew the government’s attention to the concluding paragraphs of the Home Ministry note.
One of them read: “It may not be conducive to take measures which would encourage the Bru refugees to develop a stronger attachment to the refugee camp life rather than go back to Mizoram. Efforts on creating additional facilities in the camp life would only incentivise the Brus to their camp life in Tripura and shift the focus away from rehabilitation.”
“This is highly objectionable. How can you say that you will not give them basic necessities because you feel they will continue to stay there (relief camps)?” Justice Lokur orally observed.
Additional Solicitor General Neeraj Kishan Kaul, for the Home Ministry, apologised and said the government would file a fresh note.
But Justice Lokur, despite entreaties by the ASG, went on to record that the court found the comments made by the government “highly objectionable”.
Noting how the government had held only three meetings from 2010 to 2012 — one every year, Justice Lokur asked the Centre on what its future plan for the refugees is.
“You cannot say you have done everything and throw up your hands,” Justice Lokur told the ASG.
The Centre has now been directed to sit with the Mizoram State authorities and evolve a time-bound plan to rehabilitate the refugees in Mizoram.
