Tripura tribal party supremo meets Union Ministers to seek support for indigenous people

Amid the Tipra Motha Party's (TMP) expressing its strong displeasure over sluggish progress in implementing the tripartite accord signed between the Centre, the Tripura government, and it for "constitutional solution" of problems faced by tribals, party supremo Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma on Thursday met three Union Ministers in Delhi and demanded support for the development of the tribals.

Debbarma, accompanied by his sister and Tripura East MP Kriti Devi Debbarman, met Union Minister of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram and Union Minister of State Jayant Chaudhary.

TMP sources on Thursday said that Debbarma discussed various affairs of tribals’ development in Tripura and demanded adequate support from the Union Ministers.

Following his meeting with Scindia, the TMP leader, he, in a post on X, said: “Met DoNER Minister JM Scindia and appraised him of the problems faced by the Indigenous tribes of Tripura, especially in the 6th schedule areas. Social impact assessment and audit of the projects must be done. And Informed him about the projects which can be implemented in TTAADC."

After meeting Oram, Debbarma posted: "Tripura used to be an indigenous /tribal state and over the years due to various factors, we, the indigenous, have become a minority in our own land. Requested him to financially empower the TTAADC."

The TMP has been governing, since April 2021, the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), which has jurisdiction over two-thirds of the state's 10,491 square km area and is home to over 12,16,000 people, of which around 84 per cent are tribals. In political significance, it is the second most important constitutional body in the state after the Assembly.

The TMP, which won 13 seats - all reserved for tribals - in the 2023 Assembly polls, on March 2, signed the tripartite agreement with the Centre and the Tripura government and on March 7, two MLAs of the party became ministers of the BJP-led government.

The tripartite agreement envisaged the setting up of a Joint Working Group/Committee to work out and implement the mutually agreed issues in a time-bound manner to ensure an "honourable" solution to tribals' demands.

However, TMP President Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl and other leaders last week expressed concern over the implementation of the tripartite accord, and announced that the party would contest the three-tier panchayat polls in July or August alone.

"We cannot lose our identity as a regional party. We would highlight the basic issues and problems of the tribals. We would fight for the constitutional solutions of the tribals' demands and issues," Hrangkhawl had told the media.

The TMP is seeking ‘Greater Tipraland’ or a separate state for the tribals under Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution. However, the BJP strongly opposed the demand.