All the major political parties--ruling Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee, Mizo National Front, Mizoram People’s Conference and Zoram Nationalist Party--today expressed their approval to memorandum earlier drafted by the joint NGOs to be submitted to P Chidambaram who is scheduled to visit Mizoram on Wednesday.
The memorandum demanded that more than 80 Mizo families displaced from Tripura's Sakhan hill range in 1998 after being threatened by Bru militants should be adequately rehabilitated by the Centre, otherwise, the ongoing repatriation of Bru refugees from Tripura relief camps should be discontinued.
''We never asked the Centre to repatriate the displaced Mizos to Tripura, but to give rehabilitation to them which has however fallen on a deaf ear,'' said V L Krosshnehzova, president of the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), the state’s apex students’ body, which is part of the conglomeration.
The memorandum was signed by representatives of four large NGOs in the state--the Young Mizo Association (YMA), the MZP, the Mizoram Upa Pawl (MUP) or elders association and the Mizo Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm Pawl (MHIP) or the women's federation and the four political parties.
Sources from the organisations said, in view of the unpredicted weather, two teams of the political party-NGO would be in Aizawl and also in Suarhliap village of Mizoram-Tripura border Mamit district to hand over the memorandum.
As per schedule, Mr Chidambaram would arrive at the Lengpui airport near here on Wednesday morning from where he would go to Suarhliap and Damdiai villages by helicopter to meet the Bru leaders and the repatriated refugees and return to Delhi the same day, he said.
However, if the weather does not permit him to go to the two villages, he would stay for sometime in Aizawl, but arrangements were not made for him to meet representatives of political parties and NGOs while he would meet Bru leaders, the student leader added.
The memorandum also demanded a handsome ex-gratia to the next-of-kin of Johny Lalhmangaihzuala, 22, a Mizo student of Lovely Professional University in Punjab, who was killed by some Sudanese students during a football match on April 29.