Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched a scathing attack on the Opposition CPM and Congress in Tripura over the two-and-a-half-decade-old Reang (Bru) migrant issue on Sunday, stating that the resettlement of 37,000 Bru Reang families was resolved only after the BJP came to power.
Shah credited the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) with transforming the lives of the migrants, asserting that they are now on the cusp of a new dawn as permanent residents of Tripura. The Bru families, who fled ethnic conflict in 1997, are being resettled in twelve villages across different districts of Tripura as per a four-corner agreement signed in January 2020.
At the inauguration of 13 development projects worth Rs 668.39 crore for various parts of Tripura, Shah said at the Kulai RF village ground in Ambassa in Dhalai district, “They (Brus) used to stay in pathetic conditions for over 25 years. Many families lived under one shed with no facilities for drinking water, toilets, power, primary health, or education. The communist government, which claimed to be garibo ka messiah (saviour of the poor), ruled here for 35 years, and the Congress also ruled for a long time, yet they didn’t see the pain of the Reang brothers. When a parivartan (change) came here and the BJP government was formed in 2018, an agreement was signed that ensured the resettlement of 40,000 people along with facilities for employment, education, pure drinking water, toilets, and cooperative facilities for women.”
Earlier, Shah visited the adjacent Bruhapara Reang settlement colony, formerly Haduklau para.
Shah said the BJP government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi not only created schemes for the Reang migrants but also established 11 out of 12 villages for their resettlement with an investment of Rs 900 crore. He said that although several schemes were announced during the former Congress government, they were never implemented.
“The Brus have been provided with power, brick soling roads, safe drinking water, connectivity to their homes, solar street lights, free 35 kg of rice from the public distribution system, anganwadi services and health centres,” Shah said. “Their names have been enlisted in the voters’ list, ration cards and health cards, and they have been given employment through cooperatives. Each family received Rs 1.5 lakh for building houses, along with Rs 4 lakh for assistance and Rs 5,000 monthly for 24 months.”
Recalling his visit during the former Left Front government in 2017, Shah said that only six people attended his rally, while the saffron party has since uprooted the two-decade-old Left government from power.
Shah lists NDA govt’s achievements
Shah compared achievements from the previous government, stating that only 2.5 per cent of the people had access then to water facilities, a figure that he said has increased to 85 per cent under the BJP. He also highlighted that 82 per cent of the poor now receive 5 kg of free rice through the PDS, while 80 per cent can access free healthcare under the Ayushman Bharat scheme.
“Our government has shown the real picture of development. Tripura has become peaceful and violence has ended here. We signed agreements with militant groups, including one with Bru groups,” Shah asserted.
Emphasising Tripura’s potential for development, Shah said that access to the Chittagong port of Bangladesh could enhance industries, trade and commerce. He also mentioned ongoing work on a major structure at the Tripurasundari temple, initiated by Modi when Biplab Deb was chief minister. It is progressing under the leadership of Chief Minister Manik Saha, he added.
“When someone watches Tripura after 10 years, no one can relate it with the earlier one. This sort of development can be done only by Modiji,” he said.
“I came here to see the reality of Bru migrants, and I am leaving with full satisfaction that a new dawn has come to their lives. You (Bru migrants) are Indians. Join the mainstream and expand the peripheries of your lives,” he said.
Manik Saha thanked Modi and Shah for resolving the two-decade-old problems of the Brus through the quadripartite agreement, signed between the Centre, the governments of Mizoram and Tripura, and Bru migrants. He said that 11 of the 12 locations designated for resettlement were completed and the remaining one was nearing completion at Santirbazar.
“As many as 1,754 acres of land have been allocated for the resettlement of 6,935 families comprising 37,584 people. Facilities such as drinking water, power, primary health centres, anganwadi centres and schools have been provided. The prolonged problems faced by the Brus were resolved due to our Prime Minister and home minister,” Saha said.
Saha further said that although Rs 600 crore was allocated as per the agreement, Rs 821.98 crore has been spent to permanently resettle the Bru migrants in Tripura.
Shah virtually inaugurated a senior basic school, a health and wellness centre, a market shed, a new building for an existing primary health centre for the resettled Bru migrants, and a sewage treatment plant at Agartala under the Smart City project.
Shah also laid foundation stones for several projects, including the Central Detective Training Institute under the Ministry of Home Affairs at Agartala, a new SDM office at Ambassa, a new sub-divisional hospital building at Gandatwisa in Dhalai district, two railway overbridge projects and sewage treatment plants at 11 townships across the state, among other projects.
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