Tura, Jan 18 : Eight relief camps in East Garo Hills district that were set up to accommodate fleeing villagers from Assam and Meghalaya border areas have been closed down following its inmates deciding to leave for their respective homes.
Meanwhile, the Meghalaya Government has initiated a move to take to task BJP MP from Guwahati, Smt Bijoya Chakraborty, who allegedly gave an inflammatory speech during her visit to the strife- torn area that led to a sudden mass exodus of displaced Rabhas from camps towards Assam.
A FIR has been filed by Mendipather police against the BJP MP for stoking the flames of hatred during her visit on January 5 to Mendipather College relief camp for the displaced Rabha population of Mendipather-Resubelpara area.
Until Sunday, as many as 9,000 Garos of Assam living in relief camps inside East Garo Hills have returned to their villages and at the same time 44 Rabha families who fled from this State into Assam during the ethnic riots have also crossed over.
Ten other relief camps continue to function but most of its inmates have begun moving out.
The Deputy Commissioner of East Garo Hills district, Pravin Bakshi, informed that forty-four families of Rabhas who fled into Kukurkata area of Assam to escape several hundred attackers who torched their homes during the riots have since returned to the State.
The East Garo Hills district administration has relaxed curfew hours in the troubled region for 12 hours for the third day in a row on Sunday. However, curfew will remain in force during night time as a precautionary measure.
Meanwhile, the main highway connecting Garo Hills with Assam through Paikan has been opened for traffic for the first time on Saturday. Vehicles plied normally during the daytime but night travel has been advised against.
Authorities in both the States are facing a gigantic task in reconstructing peoples’ lives and homes as the scale of the destruction in the week of riots has taken everyone aback with large scale destruction to houses, standing crops and even livestock.
Rabhas and Garos on both sides of the border have suffered extensively and many who returned to their villages on Saturday were moved to tears on seeing entire homes and villages totally destroyed.
“Their homes no longer stood, their vegetable gardens destroyed and their cattle taken away. Even the barnyard which store rice for the whole year had been burnt by arsonists,” revealed a security officer who was part of a team that had escorted a group of villagers back to their dwelling place from a relief camp.
In East Garo Hills district large scale damage took place in homes belonging to Rabhas who form a minority in the State. In Assam, it was the other way round with Garos leaving behind their homes in a mass exodus towards the safety of Meghalaya.
Government sources from Garo Hills revealed that over 500 houses were set ablaze during the first three days of the ethnic strife. “Today we are looking at nothing less than 2,000 destroyed homes in the Meghalaya side of the border,” said the officer who is assessing the damages in East Garo Hills district.
In the Assam side, the scale of the arson attacks were limited, as per official sources. Authorities in Assam have stated that 408 houses belonging to both the Garos and the Rabhas were destroyed in the conflict.
A total of 34,266 displaced persons had taken shelter in 38 relief camps set up on the Assam side in Goalpara district. So far, 2281 inmates in that State have returned home.
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