Tripura CM rules out Greater Tipraland

Ambitious schemes for tribal welfare is the priority of the new BJP-led government, Manik Saha said; Tipra Motha chief insisted he would continue to fight for separate State to be carved out for tribals

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha on Thursday rejected the Tipra Motha’s demand for ‘Greater Tipraland’, but said that his new BJP-led government would go the extra mile for the development of indigenous communities.

His assertion came less than a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah assured the Tipra Motha Party (TMP) that an interlocutor would be appointed soon to arrive at a constitutional solution to all the problems of the State’s 14 lakh Tiprasa, or indigenous people across 19 tribes.

Greater Tipraland, an exclusive administrative set-up for indigenous people, is part of the constitutional solution that TMP chief Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma has been seeking.

“We are against the demand for a Greater Tipraland state but we are committed to undertaking ambitious schemes and projects on priority for the socio-economic development of the tribal people,” Mr. Saha told journalists in the State’s capital Agartala.

Explained | The demand for a Greater Tipraland by the TIPRA Motha 

Prior to the February 16 elections, in which the BJP bagged 32 seats in the 60-member Assembly, Mr. Saha had maintained that the idea of Greater Tipraland was not feasible.

Soon after the CM’s reiteration of his stance on Thursday, Mr. Debbarma replied to a tweet by a TMP supporter: “Let him (Chief Minister) say what he wants to; that’s his view. Relax, I will always fight for our interest first.”