People's Democracy

Tripura: INPT Base Suffers Erosion

  THE Tribal Youth Federation (TYF) of Tripura has decided to launch an agitation against the INPT’s unbridled corruption and maladministration of the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC or ADC in short). The TYF, that played an important role in mobilising opinion for defeating the Congress-INPT combine in the 20 reserved scheduled tribe seats during the February 26 assembly polls in Tripura, is an affiliate of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI).

  In fact, the death-defying determination and dedication of the DYFI-TYF activists went a long way in foiling the heinous conspiracy of the Congress-INPT combine to hijack the February 26 assembly polls with the help of the NLFT guns, in the same way the INPT had usurped the ADC in the May 2000 elections. The NLFT, an outlawed extremist organisation, is the INPT’s underground wing. The mass mobilisation the DYFI and TYF carried out against corruption in the ADC and the INPT’s callousness towards development of the backward tribal areas went a long way in routing the INPT in the assembly polls. Now the same TYF is to unleash a mass movement in the ADC areas.

  Incidentally, the ADC areas mainly comprise the 20 seats reserved for scheduled tribes in the 60-seat state assembly in which the Left Front won 41 seats and the opposition Congress-INPT combine, 19.

  Informing about the TYF’s action programme, the organisation’s president Radhacharan Debbarma, who is also the opposition leader in the ADC, said the INPT’s unbridled corruption and nepotism as well as the way the INPT is misusing the ADC funds to sponsor the extremists, defeat the very purpose of the formation of the ADC. One will note that the ADC was formed in the early 1980s following years of a strenuous struggle of the tribal and non-tribal people of Tripura for development of its backward and impoverished tribal people. But now, Debbarma said, the opposition’s protests are brutally muzzled at the floor of the ADC during its sessions. He also cited specific instances of the INPT’s corruption which he said are just the tip of the iceberg.

  Meanwhile the unbridled corruption of the INPT top brass, coupled with the party’s electoral rout in the February 26 assembly polls, has driven its rank and file to tremendous despair and disaffection. At Kanchanpur subdivision in North Tripura, the INPT suffered a severe setback when 17 out of the party’s 21 member Kanchanpur divisional committee, deserted it and declared to work for the CPI(M). Those who thus deserted the INPT include the divisional committee secretary and also a central committee member. Apart from such desertions by leaders, the INPT is also suffering erosion in its rank and file as well, swelling the CPI(M) camp.

  On March 27, on the occasion of a hall meeting organised at Kanchanpur because of the CPI(M)’s initiative, in protest against the US war on Iraq, 142 heads of families which together have 450 voters, declared to quit the INPT and pledged to rally behind the red flag. The INPT’s Kanchanpur divisional committee secretary and the central committee member who recently deserted the INPT, have expressed the opinion that the party would be wiped out at Kanchanpur in the next couple of months. They also said they were in constant touch with the INPT rank and file in this respect.  

On the other hand, in the midst of this debacle of the INPT and the disarray among its ranks, their henchmen, the NLFT extremists, too, are getting demoralised. Many of them have already surrendered and many are to surrender soon. The NLFT ranks are also in the grip of bloody internecine conflicts. On March 31, an NLFT extremist was shot dead at Kanchanpur by his companions, for his decision to surrender.

MID-DAY MEAL A MILESTONE

SETTING a milestone in the Left Front government’s uphill drive for public welfare, the mid-day meal programme for primary school students got under way in Tripura on April 1. With the government of Tripura’s move benefiting a total of 4.4 lakh students in all the 3,034 primary schools statewide, the state has earned the distinction of becoming the first in the country to cover all its primary schools under the mid-day meal programme. It will cost the exchequer Rs 97.54 lakh per month.

  According to the information provided by the director of school education in the state, the centre would provide the state, free of cost, the rice required for the programme while all the remaining expenses the state government would bear. The expenditure to be incurred in the first months, including the purchase of requisite utensils and construction of cooking shed is estimated to be Rs 1.26 crore, he said.

  The Tripura minister of industries and commerce Pabitra Kar inaugurated the programme in separate functions organised at Palli Mangal School and Resham Bagan School at the northern fringe of Agartala. With an adequate infrastructure yet to be developed to make the programme a success, it is expected to give a shot in the arm of primary education in this long-neglected backward state.

(INN)