After being stranded for over a week in an office building in Mamit town, Mizoram officials assigned to conduct special summary revision of voters list in Bru relief camps in Tripura, were able to leave for home.
Election officials from Mamit, Kolasib and Lunglei districts were supposed to revise electoral rolls in the six Bru camps, but were stranded at Mamit deputy commissioner’s office since November 8 as civil society activists blocked roads to prevent them from leaving for Tripura.
Mizoram Joint Chief Electoral Officer F J Liantluanga said they could finally leave for home as state Chief Electoral Officer Manisha Saxena asked them to do so as the time for revising voters’ list in Bru camps was over yesterday.
Saxena’s instruction came after he returned from New Delhi to Aizawl today following his meeting with Election Commission (EC) officials over the situation.
“I conveyed Saxena’s decision to the Deputy Commissioner of Mamit district Lalbiaksangi who broke the news to the stranded officials,” Liantluanga told PTI.
The protesters also left after hearing that the Mizo poll officials are not going to Tripura.
Hundreds of volunteers have blocked the roads in and around the Mamit DC’s office since Sunday night to ensure that the officials could not leave the office premises.
The EC had instructed the state election department to send officials to six relief camps in North Tripura district to conduct special summary revision of voters lists which was objected by the civil societies in Mizoram.
The NGO Coordination Committee comprising five major civil societies has opposed the EC’s move to conduct revision of voters’ lists in the Bru relief camps.
It said the Brus in the relief camps refused to return to Mizoram despite repeated appeals by civil societies and the government.
It also demanded that those who refused to return to Mizoram should settle permanently in Tripura and their names be deleted from Mizoram’s voters lists.