Home Minister Shah assures Mizoram CM of providing aid for refugees

Aizawl: Union Home Minister Amit Shah has assured Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma that the Central government would provide humanitarian assistance to refugees sheltering in the state, officials said here on Saturday.

The Mizoram Chief Minister, who has been in Delhi since Thursday, separately met Union Home Minister Shah, Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, and DoNER and Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in the national capital and discussed various state-related issues including developmental schemes.

An official at the Chief Minister's office in Aizawl said that the Union Home Minister has promised to the Chief Minister to provide assistance for the refugees.

Home Minister Shah also told Chief Minister Lalduhoma that the Assam Rifles battalion set up would be relocated from central Aizawl to the proposed new headquarters at Zokhawsang, which is located around 15 km east of capital Aizawl, the officials said.

The Chief Minister during the meeting also submitted a memorandum to the Home Minister detailing the damage caused by Cyclone Remal in May-June.

The Home Minister told the Chief Minister that a Central team would be sent for verification, and financial assistance would follow based on their report, the official said.

After the military junta seized power in Myanmar on February 1, 2021, around 34,000 people including women, elderly and children, from the neighbouring country took shelter in 11 districts of Mizoram.

Over 1,900 Bangladeshi refugees including 505 women and 810 children have also taken shelter in Mizoram since November 2022 after the ethnic troubles in Chittagong Hill Tracts of that country.

Besides, Mizoram is also providing shelter to around 9,000 Kuki-Zomi-Hmar tribals who were displaced after the ethnic strife began in the neighbouring Manipur in May last year.

The Myanmar, Bangladeshi and Manipur refugees, all tribals, have close ethnic ties, and traditional and cultural similarities with the Mizos of Mizoram.

All the refugees are now staying in relief camps and the houses of relatives or friends across Mizoram, which shares 518 km and 318 km of unfenced borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh respectively.