80 percent tribal refugees in Tripura vote for Mizoram seat


Posted on 3rd Apr 2014 04:16 pm by admin

Agartala/Aizawl, April 3 (IANS) Nearly 80 percent tribal refugee voters, living in Tripura for the past 17 years after fleeing from their villages in Mizoram, voted by postal ballots for the Lok Sabha polls in Mizoram, officials said Thursday.

Balloting for the lone Lok Sabha seat in Mizoram, bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh, will be held April 9.

"Around 80 percent of the 11,500 Reang tribal voters have cast their votes through postal ballots during the past three days. The voting is still in progress in six of the seven relief camps," Tripura Chief Electoral Officer Asutosh Jindal told IANS.

Balloting began Tuesday under the close supervision of the Election Commission.

Jindal said : "Tight security measures have been undertaken in six of the seven relief camps, where facilitation centres were set up to enable the eligible refugee voters to cast their votes by postal ballots."

He added that the poll panel had appointed seven observers to oversee the electoral process at these centres.

About 11,500 of the over 36,000 Reang tribal refugees, locally known as "Bru", living in the Kanchanpur and Panisagar refugee camps of Tripura for the past 17 years, are listed in Mizoram's electoral rolls.

Five NGOs and youth organisations, led by the Young Mizo Association, have been organising protest rallies in Aizawl and other places in Mizoram since last week demanding that the poll panel revoke its decision to take the refugees' votes through postal ballot.

Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla, who is also the state Congress president, had earlier this month urged Chief Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath not to allow the refugees to vote through postal ballots.

The tribals fled their villages in Mizoram and took shelter in Tripura in October 1997 after ethnic trouble with the majority Mizos over the killing of a Mizo forest official.

About 5,000 refugees returned to their homes in the past three-and-a-half years following continued persuasion by Mizoram, Tripura and union home ministry officials.

118 Like 29 Dislike
Previous news Next news
Other news

Multi Variant Covid-19 Vaccine: Trial of world's first multi-variant corona vaccine begins, trial in the UK

Multi Variant Covid-19 Vaccine, the delta variant of the coronavirus has become a cause of concer

Corona in India: After 140 days, new cases of Covid again crossed thousand in the country, 1300 new cases came in the last 24 hours

Once again the cases of corona are increasing rapidly in the country. In the last 24 hours, thous

Cabinet Approves Phase III Auction of FM Channels

New Delhi, Jan 16 (IANS) The union cabinet Friday approved the phase-III auction of FM radio cha

World Cup: Khalistanis kept the code name of World Cup as WTC, this conspiracy was hatched in Afghanistan-Bangladesh match

Khalistani terrorists have made a strategy for dangerous plans in the Cricket World Cup. During t

Punjab in front of the riders today in IPL 2021: KKR would like to remain in the playoff race with a win, do or die battle for the Kings; These records can be made in the match

As IPL 2021 progresses, the excitement of the matches is also increasing. While the face of some

Eight YSRCP suspended from Andhra assembly

Hyderabad, March 19 (IANS) Eight legislators of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) were on Thursday

Virat Kohli's RCB team is out of the IPL final, people said such things after seeing Anushka Sharma's sad face

Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli are one of the power couples of Bollywood. Both are alwa

Crude Oil Price Update: Relief from expensive petrol and diesel is possible, there may be a big fall in crude oil prices

Crude Oil Price Today: There may be news of relief for India in the coming days. Common people ca

Karnataka Hijab Controversy: Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said there is no plan to open such schools

Karnataka Hijab Controversy: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that the state govern

'The woman who really Modernised China'

Jaipur, Jan 21 (IANS) China's Dowager Empress Cixi has been long reviled as a despotic ruler wh

Sign up to write
Sign up now if you have flare of writing..
Login   |   Register
Follow Us
Indyaspeak @ Facebook Indyaspeak @ Twitter Indyaspeak @ Pinterest RSS



Play Free Quiz and Win Cash