AGARTALA: The Tripura high court has directed the state’s election commission to enroll names of the voters belonging to the Bru community, who have been re-settled in the state, in the Tripura electoral rolls before the village council elections in November.
The Tripura high court bench headed by justice Arindam Lodh directed the Tripura SEC to complete the process of preparing the electoral roll expeditiously and hold the ensuing village council election in Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) by the first week of November.
Aggrieved with the situation of non-inclusion of Brus in the Tripura electoral rolls as per the draft voter lists of the SEC published on September 16, a group of Bru settlers filed a petition in the Tripura high court, following which the high court passed the instructions to the SEC.
While disposing of the petition the Tripura high court observed that under the Quadripartite Agreement, the people belonging to the displaced Brus have to be included in the electoral roll and the object of this clause in the Agreement is to treat them as a citizen of Tripura having given their right to exercise their franchise.
The HC underlined that as per the latest report received from the Tripura revenue department, there are 15 designated locations identified for the settlement of Bru migrants and as of now 5009 persons have been enrolled out of approximately 21,703 eligible Bru migrants at different locations.
The enrollment of Brus is being done where house constructions are completed and the families have been provided with RoR which is being done by concerned Block Development Officers, the order added.