Politics / Tripura

AIZAWL, January 31: Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ajay Srivastava, today visited Mizoram western Dampa Rengpui hamlet inhabited by Reangs Brus, according to official sources here, reports PTI. Srivastava arrived here yesterday to conduct on-the-spot verification of the progress of identification of Reang refugees, now lodged in six refugee camps in Tripura. He met State Chief Minister Zoramthanga and Chief Secretary H V Lalringa and discussed with them the issue of repatriation of the refugees from Tripura. The Mizoram Government has identified more than 11,000 Bru refugees...

AGARTALA, January 28: Matching the Protestant Church's overzealous conversion drive, the hoda okra (head priest and community leader) of the devout Hindu Jamatya tribal community, Bikram Bahadur, has unveiled a new set of programmes as part of his ongoing crusade against forced conversion of Hindu tribals by NLFT militants. Calling upon the Jamatya and other Hindu tribesmen not to bow down to the "fascist designs" of the NLFT militants and their patrons, Bikram Bahadur Jamatya and his deputy Haricharan Jamatya have urged all Hindu tribals to attend the dharma samsad slated to be held here in...

AGARTALA, January 28: Allegations have been levelled against the Baptist Church in the state that it is forcibly trying to convert Hindu tribal students in schools run by it. The Baptist Church authorities in Khumlung have allegedly made it incumbent upon Hindu tribal students in a school near the headquarters of the autonomous district council to attend regular prayer sessions in a nearby church. With this allegation, the growing religious conflict between the National Liberation Front of Twipra and the Hindu resistance groups over the issue of forced conversion drive by militants has taken a...

AGARTALA, January 27: The ruling Left Front government is in a fix over the growing demand for reservations for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in Tripura. In the monsoon session of the Assembly last year, the state government had said efforts would be made to hold discussions with the attorney-general in Delhi to take a final decision on the issue. But despite two successive meetings held by education minister Anil Sarkar, who is also in charge of Scheduled Caste affairs, the all-party team to be sent to Delhi could not be constituted in the absence of leader of the Opposition Jawahar Saha...

AGARTALA, January 21: National Liberation Front of Twipra militants have started snatching telephones installed in tribal households in the interior areas so that their movements cannot be reported to police. The tribals are also keeping silent for fear of reprisals. Officers of the telecom department came to know of the incidents from some tribals and made inquiries. Sources in the telecom department said in the first week of December, a group of armed NLFT rebels raided tribal houses having telephone connections in the Madhavpur area under Jirania police station and looted 18 telephone sets...

AGARTALA, August 9: The Bill passed by the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council to introduce the Roman script for the "Kokborak" - the state's tribal dialect - has given rise to a political controversy. The Roman script seeks to replace the Bengali script in which the "Kokborak" is taught in primary schools in the hill autonomous areas of the state. The Indigenous Peoples' Front of Tripura, the ruling group in the council, has decided to introduce the Roman script in primary schools in the hill autonomous areas immediately "as the Governor will take a long time to give assent to...

NEW DELHI, August 8: In a significant development, the Union Government on Monday set deadlines for Mizoram Government to take back the Reang refugees currently taking shelter in neighbouring Tripura, in a fresh attempt to resolve the Reang refugee problem. Although the settlement, arrived at a tripartite meeting convened by the Ministry of Home Affairs with the state governments of Mizoram and Tripura, here on Monday left the Left Front government all smiles, it had a reverse effect on its Mizoram counterpart. The meeting, chaired by the Union Home Minister, LK Advani was attended by Tripura...

IMPHAL, August 4: The All Manipur Students' Union, has expresses deep concern at the publication of a news item in a Shillong based daily, to the effect that the AMSU had pressurised students of the CAU, who hail from outside Manipur, to leave the state. AMSU representatives told media persons at a press meet that the AMSU had never pressurised CAU students from neither outside the state to leave nor for shifting of the CAU from Manipur, and questioned the grounds on which the allegations had been made. Remarking that the situation at CAU remained tense in the aftermath of the attempt by...

IMPHAL, August 4: A one man enquiry committee to be headed by the deputy director general of the Indian Council of Agricultural research, ICAR, SL Mehta, has been instituted to investigate the reasons behind the attempted mass exodus of non local hostellers of the Central Agricultural University, CAU, at Iroishemba, according to a CAU press release. The term of enquiry of the one-man committee would also be to identify responsible person for the attempted flight, if any. Meanwhile, although complete normalcy has still not been brought to the crisis, it definitely seems to be very close by...

IMPHAL, August 4: Following the announcement of an inquiry into the Central Agriculture University (CAU) incidents by the Deputy Chief Minister of the state, Leishangthem Chandramani Singh, the situation in the university campus has totally calmed down. It may be noted that a total of 96 students from Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh,Tripura and Mizoram had tried to run away from the Irishemba Agriculture University hostels packing all their belongings on August 2 morning. The Deputy Chief Minister, who is the Chief Minister-in-charge, said that certain developments had come up regarding the...