Politics / Tripura

Agartala, Jan. 14: Militants of the National Liberation Front of Tripura on Sunday raped and murdered a 20-year-old in Dhalai district, police said today. Last month, 13-year-old Mangalaxmi Debbarma was raped before being strangled in the Brajendranagar area under Jirania police station.

Sources said NLFT militants armed with sophisticated weapons stormed the house of Manna Kumar Tripura in the remote Jamircherra area in Dhalai.

They beat up family members with their rifles before abducting Premlata, the 20-year-old daughter.

Sources said the rebels set the body of Premlata on fire after...

Agartala, Jan. 13: The Left Front today released its list of nominations for the forthcoming Assembly elections. Seven sitting MLAs, including Tripura minister for jail Balaram Reang, have been denied party tickets. The list has 16 new faces and three women — Baijayanti Koloi (Takarjala), Kalyani De (Barjala) and Bijaylaxmi Sinha (Kamalpur). The sitting MLAs who have been dropped are Gitamohan Reang, Ananata Pal, Baidyanath Mazumder, veteran CPM secretary who has opted out, Anil Chakma, Sandhya Debbarma, Binduram Reang and Balaram Reang.

Left Front chairman Baidyanath Mazumder told...

Agartala, Jan. 13: Tension is simmering in the arcadian Jampui Hills in north Tripura bordering Mizoram following the desecration of a Hindu temple and an image of a deity. Official sources in Kanchanpur subdivisional town, the headquarters of the Jampui Hills, said a group of Mizo youths from neighbouring Mizoram went to Bethlingsiv hilltop and desecrated an image of Lord Shiva nearly a month back. They also allegedly built a church-like structure next to the temple housing the image. Hindu tribals and non-tribals of the area are up in arms over the desecration of the stone image of Lord...

NEW DELHI JAN. 12. Politics in the north-east is not what it is in the rest of the country. Parties on the same side of the political fence elsewhere find themselves in opposite camps here and as for the regional parties, it is anybody's guess which way they will go.

The scene in the run-up to the next month Assembly elections in Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland presents an interesting picture.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which runs two coalition Governments with the Congress in Maharashtra and Meghalaya, will be its main rival in Meghalaya this time. And in Nagaland, the NCP is in...

Agartala, Jan. 10: The latest round of Naga talks in New Delhi has already led to demands for similar parleys with outfits in Tripura, but these are mostly from poll-bound political parties rather than the militants themselves. While the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) has blamed the ruling Left Front for lacking a will to end insurgency, the party in power said there was little it could do, given the fact that the banned outfits had spurned past offers.

The Opposition INPT, which reportedly has links with the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), has demanded...

AGARTALA, Jan 7 — There has been an increase of 2.7 per cent voters in Tripura as per the final electoral roll which was published yesterday. The total number of voters who would exercise their franchise in the coming February polls stands at 19,31,000. The previous roll had 18,80,700 voters. Official sources said the entire process was completed yesterday.

“In the special summery revision of the roll, we have received 12.63 per cent voters as per the figures of January 2002 who had wanted to get their names included in the roll, but only 2.7 per cent forms could be cleared depending on the...

New Delhi, Jan. 7: Swivelling the spotlight back on foreigners overstaying in India, the Centre today obtained concurrence from states on issuing citizens’ identity cards and announced the launch of a three-month drive from April to flush out illegal immigrants. The multi-purpose identity cards will be issued on the basis of a proposed national citizens’ register.

A pilot project for the identity cards will be launched in specific areas in 13 states, including Bengal, Assam and Tripura, which have a sizeable number of immigrants from Bangladesh. If the finance ministry releases Rs 14 crore...

AGARTALA, Jan 4— Opposition Congress and its tribal ally Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura at last reached a seat adjustment agreement at a meeting in New Delhi last evening.

The final adjustment was reached at “17+1” formula which means INPT will fight it out in 17 ST reserved seats and one general in the next Assembly elections. Though the number of the seats to be shared was finalized, both the Congress and INPT leaders are tight-lipped about the constituencies to be exchanged. When contacted in Delhi, they said AICC president Sonia Gandhi would announce the seats formally...

Agartala, Jan. 1: If Bombay can become Mumbai and Madras renamed Chennai, why can’t Tripura be called “Twipra?” A million-rupee question, but being raised in the state by several organisations, led by the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT). Their argument: The renaming of Tripura to “Twipra” is a must for conformity with the tribal Kokborok language and its phonetics.

The issue is set to be the INPT’s main poll plank in the tribal-dominated areas for the forthcoming Assembly elections.

The demand was first raised, in passing, by INPT president Bijay Kumar Hrangkahwal at a public...

Agartala, Dec. 28: Militants of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) have warned Jamatya tribals of serious consequences if they do not pay taxes this year. They have also threatened to attack non-tribal settlements located close to the Jamatya-inhabited areas.

The militants had failed to extort any “tax” from the Hindu Jamatyas over the past two years in the face of organised resistance by Jamatya Hoda, the supreme community council. The Jamatyas had launched a resistance programme against the NLFT militants and their conversion drive in early 2000 under the leadership of the then...