Agartala: Tripura’s leader of opposition Jitendra Chaudhury has criticised the state’s Bru resettlement process, saying displaced families from Mizoram were denied agricultural land, which he warned could lead to long-term livelihood issues and inter-community tensions.
Speaking at an event in Agartala on Saturday to mark the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, Chaudhury said while the CPI(M) welcomed the 2020 quadripartite agreement that provided permanent settlement to over 8,000 Bru families in different parts of the state, the allocation was limited to house plots.
“Indigenous communities cannot sustain themselves without farmland. This decision will have adverse consequences in the future,” Chaudhury said, recalling violent clashes between the majority Bru (Reang) and minority Charai, a Halam sub-tribe, at Damcherra two years ago over land disputes.
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He cautioned that similar tensions could flare up in Gandacherra, Ambassa, and Santirbazar, and suggested the government could have used part of the state’s 60 per cent reserved forest area to allocate farmland to the resettled families.
Highlighting the CPI(M)’s history of working for tribal welfare, Chaudhury cited the ‘Jana Shiksha Abhiyan’ spearheaded by the party’s tribal wing, Gana Mukti Parisad, since 1945, and credited the party’s movement with prompting then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to grant Sixth Schedule status to the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council.
