EC has pledged to enable Brus in camps to vote in Mizoram: CM Lal Thanhawla

AIZAWL: Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla today said the Election Commission has pledged that arrangements would be made to ensure exercise of franchise in Mizoram by Bru voters lodged in Tripura relief camps in the parliamentary and assembly polls.

In a letter sent to the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on April 7, 2014, the EC had made the pledge, the CM said in a written reply to K Sangthuama of the Mizo National Front (MNF) in the Assembly.

The EC letter to the CEO was sent after the NGO Coordination Committee demanded that the Bru voters should not be allowed to cast their votes outside the state.

Lal Thanhawla, however, said that the EC was yet to accept the demand of the NGO that the names of those Bru voters who refused to be repatriated to Mizoram should be deleted from the voters' lists.

Meanwhile, the instruction of the EC to the state election department to conduct special summary revision of electoral rolls in the six Bru relief camps in North Tripura district was criticised by the NGO.

A joint meeting, recently held between the major civil societies and the political parties, had agreed to send a delegation to Delhi during October to press its demands on Bru voters to the EC.