Agartala/Aizawl, May 18 : Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram Wednesday cancelled his trip to Mizoram due to bad weather at the airport, and returned to New Delhi from Agartala, officials said.
Chidambaram had arrived in Agartala Tuesday. He was to meet Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla to review the situation in the mountainous state in Mizoram.
“In view of the bad weather and poor visibility at the Lengpui Airport in Mizoram, the pilots and officials have suggested the union minister to cancel his trip,” a senior official in Aizawl said.
During his visit to Mizoram, Chidambaram was to supervise the progress of the repatriation of tribal refugees from north Tripura to western Mizoram. He was scheduled to visit a village by helicopter to meet the tribal leaders at Mamit district in western Mizoram.
“The long-awaited repatriation of tribal refugees from Tripura to neighboring Mizoram resumed April 12, but there is still uncertainty over whether all the migrants here would return home,” an official said.
Speaking to IANS, North Tripura’s Kanchanpur Sub-Divisional Magistrate Dilip Chakma said: “A total of 701 tribal families — comprising about 3,585 men, women and children — have been sent back so far. The process of repatriation of refugees to their villages in western Mizoram is still on.”
Following ethnic tensions in Mizoram, over 41,000 Reang tribal refugees — locally called Bru — have taken shelter in six camps in north Tripura’s Kanchanpur sub-division, adjacent to western Mizoram, since October 1997.
In Agartala, Chidambaram Tuesday laid the foundation stone for the construction of an Integrated Check Post at Akhaurah along the border that is aimed to help boost trade with Bangladesh and facilitate trans-border passenger traffic.
Chidambaram also held meetings with Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and top central, state and paramilitary officials and discussed the prevailing law and order situation of Tripura, bordering Bangladesh.
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