Guwahati, March 28: Election officials from Mizoram are set to meet with their counterparts from Tripura to speed up the process of deleting the names of Mizoram Bru voters who have settled permanently in the neighbouring state.

Speaking to reporters, Mizoram Joint Chief Electoral Officer, David Liansanglura Pachau, informed that they are planning to travel to Tripura in April to hold talks with Tripura election officials to sort out the Bru voters imbroglio and ensure speedy deletion of Bru voter names from Mizoram electoral roll.

The move is aimed at resolving the issue and ensuring the speedy deletion of Bru voters’ names from the Mizoram electoral roll before the state assembly polls, which are scheduled later this year.

“The Election Department has so far deleted names of 4,318 Bru voters, who have settled permanently in neighbouring Tripura, from the State voters list,” he stated.

Furthermore he added, “We are planning to go with election officers of district concerned. We will take list of the Bru voters in Mizoram electoral roll and discuss the matter with Tripura officials to expedite the deletion process.”

Fearing ethnic tension triggered by the murder of a Mizo forest official by Bru militants in 1997, thousands of Brus had fled to Tripura after the killing. Since then they have been living in transit camps in Tripura.

Pachuau said that the process of deletion is moving at a snail’s pace as many Bru voters had lost their Mizoram voter identity cards and no longer remember which constituencies they belonged to.

The Central government along with the government of Mizoram and Tripura made at least nine attempts to repatriate the Bru tribals from Tripura between 2009 and 2019 however only a few had returned to Mizoram during the exercise.