AGARTALA:
The Tripura High Court, on September 23, issued notices to the Election Commission of India (ECI), State Election Commission (SEC), and the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) for omitting the names of Brus from the electoral roll for the upcoming village council election.
The notices were issued based on a petition filed in Tripura High Court, and the hearing of the petition will start on September 26.
“The quadripartite agreement clearly mentioned that the state government will provide Aadhar cards and voter ID cards to the Brus,” a source said.
Notably, the Election Commission had, on September 16, released the voters list of 2,634 constituencies of 587 villages, which included the names of 8,86,334 voters (4,46,198 males and 4,40,132 females)
The petitioner’s advocate, Shankar Lodh, said that as per the agreement signed between Tripura, Mizoram, and the central government, the Brus will be allowed to settle in Tripura and the state government will take necessary steps to enroll them in the voters’ list.
Citing reasons for the non-inclusion of names the source informed, “there are 26,000 eligible Bru voters, but only 5000 names have been included in the electoral roll as they do not have permanent homes here.”
He also pointed that many people who do not have permanent homes in Tripura are listed in the voters’ list.