Mizoram: Kolasib District Election Officer Dr. T Arun Served with Eviction Notice

Guwahati: The Polling officers involved in the election process in the poll bound northeastern state of Mizoram are having a tough time because of the controversy surrounding the Brus ahead of ensuing Assembly election in the State.

District election officer Dr. T Arun was served an eviction notice by Kolasib NGO coordination committee on late Monday accusing him of adding Bru voters without a proper hearing.

In a notice issued on Monday night, the Kolasib Joint NGO coordination committee has served the election officer an eviction notice and demanded he should comply with the notice latest by 5:00 pm on Tuesday evening.

The NGO in a statement said, “The district election officer had added 218 Bru voters and these added voters are residents of the relief camps in Tripura, and we have learnt that they were added to the rolls without any proper hearing by the district election officer Dr. T Arun,”

The NGO’s statement also said that repeated requests were made to the officer to conduct a proper hearing at the Bru relief camps if he was to add new Bru voters in the roll, and leveled charges against him that he did it without a hearing.

The Kolasib unit of Mizoram's NGO Coordination Committee on Friday had asked the deputy commissioner to publicly apologise for enrolling 218 Brus in the voters' list without holding any hearing

It may be mentioned that the Joint Chief Electoral Officer of Mizoram, Zorammuana, had directed the Deputy Commissioner of Kolasib district to delete the names of 'Bru' voters who were enrolled in the electoral list without holding any public hearing.

Zorammuana in a letter written to the Deputy Commissioner had said, that hearing should be conducted in the presence of NGOs and local leaders who could identify voters from the Bru community as bona fide residents of the villages.

While the committee is in favour of 'Bru' voters casting their votes in their respective villages in Mizoram in the November 28 Assembly elections, the Election Commission has allowed them to vote in relief camps in Tripura.

Noteworthy that the Bru imbroglio in Mizoram has led to the ouster of Mizoram CEO S B Shashank and Mamit Deputy Commissioner Bhupesh Chaudhary.

While Shashank was alleged of taking the Bru sides and seen as the culprit for the exit of Lalnunmawia Chuaungo. Bhupesh Chaudhary on the otherhand was also alleged of showing soft corner for the Brus during the recent roll revision in Mizoram.

More than 11,000 people belonging to the Bru community fled Mizoram following ethnic clashes in 1997, and they have been living in relief camps in Tripura.

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