GUWAHATI: More than 11,000 Bru voters living in exile in Tripura do not want to travel to Mizoram to cast their votes for the November 28 assembly election as they are facing a severe food crisis following stopping of ration by the Centre.Leader of Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF), Bruno Msha, said they would prefer the Election Commission to use the old system of postal ballots to collect votes of Brus staying in six relief camps of Tripura.“We have asked the Election Commission why the old postal ballot system has been discontinued? There are many old people among us who will find it difficult to travel to Mizoram to cast their votes. And now, when we are made to starve, travelling has become more difficult,” said Msha.He added, “Our people will be starving… the present food stock will hardly last for two more days.”Msha said Brus in Tripura have voted through postal ballots in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and also in the past.The Election Commission has ordered that all Bru voters in Tripura would have to vote in person in polling stations inside Mizoram this time. Msha said the polling station might be set up at Kanhmun village that divides Mizoram from Tripura. “But this place is about 20km from our first camp and about 70km from the last camp. Our old people can’t travel that far and that too when they are starving,” said Msha.There are 32,875 displaced Bru people, also called Reangs, living in six relief camps in north Tripura’s Kanchanpur areas adjoining Mizoram since 1997 after they fled their homes following ethnic violence. The displaced families are from Mamit, Kolasib and Lunglei districts of Mizoram.A fresh move by the Centre for their repatriation did not succeed as expected as only four families returned to Mizoram following which New Delhi stopped supply of ration to Bru camps from October 1. For the past 21 years, the Centre had been mounting pressure on the people to vacate the camps and return to their homeland in Mizoram. The Brus want a better repatriation package for going back.The Brus voters are spread over nine constituencies in three western Mizoram districts. Of the 11,232 Bru voters in Tripura, 8,777 are from the Mamit district, 1,732 from the Kolasib district and 723 from southern Mizoram’s Lunglei district.

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