Agartala, April 30: The center and the Tripura government has undertaken a Rs 1,200 crore ambitious scheme to rehabilitate 36,140 tribal migrants who fled from Mizoram 24 years ago following ethnic strife in the adjoining state, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said.

Deb said that the Tripura government has selected 13 locations in different districts to rehabilitate the internally displaced Reang tribals, locally called them as “Bru”.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have taken the bold steps to resolve the 24-years old ethnic crisis of the Reang tribals,” said the Chief Minister, who on Thursday visited the Dhalai district to supervise the arrangements of the resettlements.

He said that the Prime Minister already announced a Rs 600 crore package for the resettlement of these tribal migrants in Tripura.

According to the agreement signed in January last year by the Chief Secretaries of Mizoram, Tripura, MHA Joint Secretary Satyendra Garg and the representatives of the refugees in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, 36,140 tribals from around 5,400 families of the Reang tribal community would be resettled in different districts of Tripura.

Since October 1997, the Reangs tribals have been sheltered in northern Tripura’s seven relief camps in Kanchanpur and Panisagar sub-divisions.

The resettlement of the first batch of around 890 Reang tribals had started on April 19, more than 15 months after a four-partite agreement was signed in Delhi.

The Centre has announced a Rs 600 crore package for the settlement of the Reang tribals, recognised as a primitive tribe in Tripura.

Of the package, Rs 150 lakh will be earmarked to the Tripura government for land acquisition and the rest would be spent for the welfare of these tribals.