Politics / Tripura

AGARTALA, March 28: The ridiculously low number of child labourers recorded by the labour department of the Tripura government has drawn flak from experts of the V.V. Giri National Labour Institute. According to state government records, there are only 278 child labourers in Tripura. Of them, only 11 work in establishments which pose serious health hazards. These figures came out in the course of a seminar on child labour here jointly sponsored by the V.V. Giri National Labour Institute and the state labour department. The figures of child labour referred to by labour department officials in...

AGARTALA, March 27: Justice N.S. Singh of the Agartala bench of the Gauhati High Court today issued notices to the state and Union governments, asking why compensation of Rs 15 lakh should not be awarded to five civilians who were tortured by security forces. The non-tribal civilians were physically tortured by Assam Rifles jawans in the name of counter-insurgency operations in Kanchanpur subdivision on May 3 last year. The five non-tribals had been rounded up by Assam Rifles and brutally tortured after being taken to its camps. They sustained serious physical injuries and later filed a writ...

AGARTALA, March 23: The Indigenous People's Front of Tripura has put an end to its internal disputes under pressure from the NLFT. A rapprochement has been reached among its warring factions. The rebel outfit wants Indigenous People's Front of Tripura leaders to "work unitedly in hill people's interest." Debabrata Koloy, a senior Indigenous People's Front of Tripura leader, had resigned as the autonomous council's chief executive member on 9 March following an infighting over leadership within the party. Earlier, the party chief, Harinath Devbarma, along with other IPFT members met the...

SILCHAR, March 21: In a bid to pave the way for a dialogue with the insurgent groups, the Tripura government is considering a Nagaland-type ceasefire in the insurgency-ravaged state. Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar told The Telegraph today that the Centre should immediately take the initiative in this regard. Sarkar kicked off the CPM's campaign for the ensuing Assam Assembly polls at the Gandhi Park here. However, the Centre should ensure before announcing the truce that the rebels observe the ceasefire rules, he said. Proper ground rules should also be framed for monitoring the ceasefire...

AGARTALA, March 19: The new ruling council of the Tripura on March 19 Tribal Areas District headed by Chief Executive Member Kripa Mohan Reang was sworn in at the ADC headquarters at Khumlawng. There are four executive members besides the Chairman and CEM in the new Council. Instead of nine as it was in the previous Council headed by Debabrata Koloy. Spokesman of the ADC ruling party, Indigenous Peoples' Front of Tripura, Bijoy Hrangkhawl said that later one more executive member might be inducted in the Council. He said, the IPFT would move the Centre to create a post of vice-chairman in the...

AIZAWL, March 20: The State government claims to have completed the process of identifying the "legal" Reang residents of Mizoram and have placed the figure at a little over 10,000, reports UNI. With this, the Mizoram administration has literally rubbished the claims made by Tripura that over 31,000 Reangs living in the northern refugee camps belonged to the State. The announcement could have far reaching effects on the demographic profile of the region as Mizoram can now refuse entry to over 20,000 Reangs/Brus who were claiming to be residents of the State. Placing the Reangs under two...

AGARTALA, March 19: Making fresh disclosures about the infighting in the National Liberation Front of Twipra, senior NLFT commander Nayanbasi Jamatya lashed out at the outfit's official faction. Jamatya, who left the outfit's hideout in Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh last month, said in a fax message to the local media that the former chief executive member of the Autonomous District Council (ADC) and senior leader of the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) Debabrata Koloi met Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Delhi with a proposal for peace negotiations. Senior IPFT leader...

AGARTALA, March 19: The Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) today formed a four-member executive committee headed by Kripa Mohan Reang, ending for the time being the fortnight-long stalemate over the issue. Besides Reang, a surprise choice for the post of the chief executive member, the four other executive members who were administered the oath of office were Mohan Debbarma, Benoy Debbarma, L.V. Darlong and Krishna Kanta Jamatya. The oath of office was administered by law secretary A.B. Pal at the headquarters of the Autonomous District Council (ADC) at Khumlung under Jirania police...

AGARTALA, March 18: The CBI has taken over the probe into the murder of Congress MLA Madhusudan Saha who was gunned down on February 20 by unidentified assailants near his residence. The Opposition Congress had been vocal in demanding a CBI probe into the incident, to which the government later conceded. Two senior officers of the apex investigating authority (Calcutta wing) - Satyaranjan Banerjee and Amalendu Dhar - arrived here yesterday and held discussions with the first inquiry officer of the case. The CBI sleuths were also handed over papers and other related materials by the criminal...

AGARTALA, March 17: The Mizoram government's bid to link the repatriation of more than 31,000 Reang tribal refugees stranded in six North Tripura camps over the past three-and-a-half years to the issue of Bru militancy has dimmed the prospect of an early repatriation of refugees. Mizoram government's latest stand was made clear at a tripartite meeting held in Delhi between the chief secretaries of Mizoram, Tripura and senior officials of the Union home ministry. Mizoram chief secretary H.V. Lalringa said unless the Bru National Liberation Front stopped terrorist activities in Mizoram...