Cash-Strapped Mizoram Is Home To 40,000 Bangladeshi, Myanmarese Refugees

AIZAWL: The northeastern state of Mizoram, which is suffering from a financial crisis and is already overburdened with Kuki-Chin refugees from conflict-torn Myanmar, has recently been receiving a new influx of displaced people from Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), which has ties to the Kuki-Chin ethnic group.

Especially noteworthy were the military skirmishes between the Bangladesh Army and insurgents from the Kuki-Chin National Army, which forced more than 300 Kuki-Chin refugees from CHT to seek sanctuary in the northeastern state (KNA).

There are currently 40,000 refugees in the state, mostly from Bangladesh and Myanmar. The COVID-19 outbreak and the Centre's holdup in distributing the state's portion of taxes and funds have put the Zoramthanga administration in a dire financial bind.

The issue has caused delays in the proper payment of government employee salaries and retiree pensions, in addition to the clearing of debts. The state government does anticipate that the problem will be resolved in 2023 thanks to additional funding from the Center.

Additionally, Mizoram made an effort to settle the Assam-Mizoram boundary conflict by conducting negotiations with Assam in August and November. In an effort to settle the conflict amicably, the chief ministers of the two states met in New Delhi in September. Last year, there was a border incident between the two neighboring states, during which the police forces of the two states exchanged gunfire, killing at least six officers and an Assamese citizen.

In Mizoram, there were two catastrophic events occurred. Twelve persons tragically perished in a stone quarry collapse in the Hnahthial area in November, while eleven perished in an oil tanker fire at Tuirial hamlet in the Aizawl district in October. The state administration was forced to close schools for the first three months of the year due to an uptick in COVID-19 cases of the Omicron strain.

The administration did loosen the COVID limitations, though, as infections began to decline to start in April. In order to form the government in the Mara Autonomous District Council (MADC) after elections held in May produced a hung council, the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) formed an alliance with its archrival Congress for the first time in Mizoram's history.

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