Politics / Tripura

AGARTALA, February 19: The work on putting up a fence along the international border in Tripura will begin on 15 March. The decision was taken at a meeting here. The Chief Minister, officials of the state government, Union home ministry, BSF, Border Road Organisation and the four D of Tripura were present in the meeting. Initially the work will begin along a 40-km stretch, officials said. The BRO earlier sought approval from the Union home ministry. Rs 9 crore has been approved by Centre at the first phase for implementing the project. It has been estimated that about Rs 27 lakh will be needed...

AGARTALA, February 15: Even as electioneering gained momentum with all the political parties fielding their heavyweight vote catchers in Kadamtala constituency which goes to the by-polls on February 19, last-ditch efforts are still on to come to an understanding among the Opposition parties. Although, former CPI(M) MLA Umesh Nath could make it to the Assembly in the last elections, his total votes in the kitty were much less than that of the total anti-Left votes. This time also there are as many as six candidates including two independents which means the anti-Left votes split in this by...

AGARTALA, February 8: The Hoda (village council), a powerful apex body of the Jamatiya tribe, today pledged its support to the Tripura Government in fighting militancy in the state. Addressing newspersons, Hoda chief Bikram Bahadur Jamatiya said, "We will not allow any outfit be it National Liberation Front of Twipra or All Tripura Force to destroy peace in our community. The Hoda would not also tolerate any attempt by the political parties to persuade Hoda volunteers just to satisfy their political hunger," he warned. The Hoda leader was referring to the statement made by a section of the...

AGARTALA, February 12: A high-level meeting of officials will be held here tomorrow to work out details about barbed fence along Tripura-Bangladesh border. The Chief Minister, Manik Sarkar, will address the meeting. Senior officials of the Union home ministry alongwith the BSF and the BRTF will be present at the meeting. Though the work on fencing was earlier scheduled to be started during current financial year, an official said, it would take some more time to finalise certain pending decisions. Dearth of funds may hamper work of the barbed wire fence. The scheme of putting up barbed fence...

AGARTALA, February 11: Tripura Upajati Gana Mukti Parisad, the ruling CPI-M's tribal wing, has charged the Trinamul state unit and the Tripura Upajati Juba Samity with forging a "clandestine alliance" with terrorist groups. TUGMP is worried over the manner in which the state's Opposition is maintaining a silence over the killing and attacks by armed insurgent groups. The TUGMP central executive committee, in its two-day meeting concluded here yesterday, approved the decision to launch an organised campaign in Tripura's hill areas to expose the rebels and the role of Opposition parties. The...

AGARTALA, February 9: Binoy Debbarma, senior leader of the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura and an executive member of the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District, has threatened to go on a fast for an indefinite period. He decided to protest against the manner in which the state government allegedly encouraged the Jamatiya community leaders to indulge in excess against the poor tribal villagers at Killa, and the nearby areas of South Tripura in the past several days, in the name of 'search operation' to rescue the 21 Jamatiya activists earlier kidnapped by the NLFT. This was the first...

AGARTALA, February 8: The National Liberation Front of Twipra released 21 volunteers of the Jamatya Hoda (community council) this morning following intensive combing operations by the police and Tripura State Rifles (TSR) jawans over the past week. The Jamatya Hoda (community council) had also taken a tough stand against the rebels. The hostages were freed near the remote Nitya Bazar area under Killa police station. The Hindu Jamatya tribals had been fighting the Church-backed NLFT under the leadership of Hoda Okra (head priest and community leader) Bikram Bahadur Jamatya over the past year...

AGARTALA, February 8: The NLFT was forced to release the Jamatiya hostages last night with more tribal groups joining the revolt against the ultras. The insurgents freed 21 Jamatiya activists who were earlier kidnapped from Chhai Maroa hill village under Killa police station in South district's Udaipur sub-division. Vikram Bahadur Jamatiya and Haricharan Jamatiya, both chiefs of the community's apex social unit in a news conference at the Agartala Press Club yesterday announced that the Jamatiya hill tribesmen were ready for an "all out resistance against the NLFT excess in the state's hill...

AGARTALA, February 8: The sixth Census in Tripura is slated to begin from tomorrow. Authorities have identified a "peculiar tendency" among people in filing incorrect replies to queries on age. Apart from the need to enrol in the voters' list, people have a "general tendency to furnish wrong information about age to square off age limits on round figures". Pointing out this tendency in "single year age returns" (determining the number of people in a particular age group in a year) of the 1991 census, director, census operation, Krishnadhan Nath, said, "In the enumeration of the 1991 Census...

AGARTALA, February 3: The Tripura tribal areas' autonomous district council witnessed unruly scenes today after ruling party members made an unsuccessful attempt to physically assault the Opposition's leader, Radhacharan Debbarma. The council had today held a day's session at Khumulung near Agartala to pass the Bill for creating the post of a deputy chairman for the council. Trouble began after a section of the ruling Indigenous People's Front of Tripura members suddenly became excited over the Opposition's denial to support the Bill, and rushed towards Debbarma in an apparent move "to teach...