People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No. 07
February 17, 2013
|
Vol. XXXVII
No. 07 February 17, 2013 |
SIMNA CONSTITUENCY People
Determined to Prevent Return of
Dark Days THE people of Simna in
West District of Tripura
suffered maximum pain of the over two decade long
extremist problem in the
state. This region was one of the main corridors for the
extremists to enter
and return to their base camps in Since then this road had
been closed for traffic
and it opened only four years back. No teacher or
government official could
dare to come here to work. All development activity came
to a standstill and
tribals, who are a majority here, suffered the most due
to the gameplan of
extremists to create ethnic divide. Even as things improved
in other parts of the
state and extremists started surrendering by accepting
the Left Front
government's amnesty scheme, things did not improve in
Simna for a long time.
One of the main reasons for this has been the hold of
the dreaded commander of
All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) Ranjit Debbarma among
sections of tribal youth.
Ranjit Debbarma hails from Esrai village near Simna. But
he has been operating
from Banglaadesh territory and is the main accused in
many massacres of
hundreds of non-tribals across Tripura. He was caught by
Bangaldeshi security
forces in December 2012 and handed over to Tripura
police. Currently, he is
lodged in Agartala Central Jail awaiting trial. One of the victims of
ATTF extremists'
atrocities was Pranab Debbarma. He is CPI(M) MLA from
Simna constituency
continuously since 1993. He is also contesting in the
present election seeking
fifth consecutive win. We caught up with him in Hejamara
town at a CPI(M)
election rally. We were keen to know first hand from him
about his kidnap by
ATTF extremists in January 1997 and his daring escape
after 11 months in
captivity in In his own words: “I
worked actively in students
movement as a leader of Tribal Students Union. As CPI(M)
MLA I had gone on a
bicycle on that day to a school in interior tribal area
for a meeting. Six ATTF
extremists came to the school with AK-56 rifles. They
took me and my security
guard Alok Mukherjee with them into the jungle. After
some days we were taken
into “I used to argue with my
captors why they were
harming fellow tribals by preventing their development.
They would not have
answers and say that they are only carrying out orders
from their bosses. I
asked them to let me meet their bosses but it never
happened. After
11 months of detention, we decided to
flee from there at any cost. One day we observed that
our sentry guards had
worked very hard to fetch firewood and water to the
camp. That night when the
sentry slept on duty, around 3 am, we both helped each
other in unchaining and
ran away. We spent many hours in thick jungle, not
knowing our way. We had to
cross many mountains. Finally, when we heard the horn
sound of a passing lorry,
we could sense the direction of the road and reached it.
There we stopped a car
passing through and got into it. Incidentally, it was of
a police officer. I
told him that I was an MLA from Tripura and about my
kidnap. He talked to his higher
officials and we were taken to I asked him about the
situation in Simna now.
The ever-smiling MLA said although the threat of
extremists remains, there is a
lot of improvement. “The last five years we worked very
hard to catch up with
development that our area missed due to extremist
problem. A new Hejamara Block
Development Office, two new 10-bedded PHCs along with
upgradation of an
existing one, roads connecting to every village, over
100 mini-deep tube wells
to meet the drinking water problem, lift irrigation
projects etc are some of
our achievements”, he said. Seeing the enthusiastic
participation of tribal
youth in the CPI(M) election rally, it was clear to us
that the people of Simna
are determined not to allow the dark days to return. (From N February 8, 2013)
