Bengali refugees of Gandacherra indirectly coerced into leaving camps

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, October 31, 2024

As anticipated well in advance the sub-divisional administration in Gandacherra has indirectly coerced more than 400 Bengali refugees belonging to 165 families to leave camps and go nowhere. Describing this as part of the appeasement politics of BJP sources from Gandacherra said that the refugees have neither been given any thing to match their demands , nor the full promised amount of relief for house-building. The administration resorted to a dirty tactics to coerce the camps inmates to leave their shelter by first stopping supply of prepared food and then cutting off ration supply. “Unless various social organizations had come forward to help these hapless people they would have died from starvation, the government help was lackadaisical and a mere pittance; ironically the government could have built their houses with funds from the PMAY scheme but nothing was done” said sources.

The 165 Bengali families belonging to seven villages around the Gandacherra town had been rendered homeless destitutes by a large group of thugs and goons among the resettled Reang refugees on July 12 following the accidental death of a tribal youth Parameshwar Reang. Even though the administrative officials and police officers and jawans were on duty all the houses of the Bengalis were gutted and all assets destroyed by the thugs and goons among the resettled Reang refugees and they did nothing to stop the mayhem. Subsequently the chief minister Dr Manik Saha visited the spot after twenty two days but this did not help the homeless and destitute refugees much. Sources said that now the Bengali refugees will have to fend for themselves and build their lives from scratches.