AROUND 1000 Bru voters’ names are left out of the latest electoral rolls, alleges Mizoram-Bru Refugee Committee (MBRC). 

Mizoram Election Department has just completed the quick enumeration in the run up to the state assembly elections.

Joint Chief Electoral Officer C Lalchuma carried out the enumeration on the directive of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) MBRC President Bruno Msha had earlier complained to the CEC that the Brus living in refugee camps since 1997 had been deprived of their democratic right to exercise their franchise in the general election of 1998 and again in the lone Parliamentary election of 1999. The CEC directed the Mizoram Election department to conduct de novo enumeration to enlist the names of all eligible voters.

Msha regretted that despite their pleadings, the names of students outside the state were “not included” in the voters list and also those who could not be physically present due to the short notice of the notification. He urged the CEC to include the names or else MBRC would be forced to launch an agitation. Bru ultras in Tripura Mizoram Home Minister R Tlanghmingthanga has alleged that the Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF) militants were using Tripura as a safe haven. Quoting intelligence inputs, he complained in the state Assembly that Bru militants were roaming freely around six refugee camps at Kanchanpur (North Tripura). What about Tripura Chief Minister’s allegation that NLFT rebels are having camps in Mizoram, an opposition member asked. Tlanghmingthanga said our government verified the allegation. We found no camps. It is a false charge. “Insurgents might have crossed the border under the cover of the thick jungles, but there were no rebel camps inside Mizoram,” he said, adding that Tripura government has been apprised of the ground reality. “The Union Minister of State for Home also said that he or the ministry did not have any knowledge of the presence of militant camps in Mizoram as alleged by Sarkar who said that he received inputs from central intelligence agencies,” he said.

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