AGARTALA, Aug 4 - With the Lok Sabha polls drawing near Tripura seems to be headed for turmoil with 10,000 militant returnees, deprived of the promised rehabilitation benefits promised by the previous State Government, threatening to launch a Statewide agitation.
The erstwhile militants who have launched an umbrella organisation Tripura United Indigenous Peoples Council (TUIPC) under the leadership of Ananta Debbarma (NLFT) as president and Achai Khasrang Jamatya as Secretary.
They have already addressed a letter to Chief Secretary Sanjeev Ranjan seeking an appointment to discuss their problems but are yet to receive any reply.
�We will bring our problems to the notice of Governor Tathagata Roy, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ramnath Kovind and seek a solution�, Ananta Debbarma, a former rebel leader said on Saturday.
�If our issues are not addressed we will launch a Statewide agitation which Tripura has never seen earlier�, he warned.
Ananta said that the TNV Accord had been signed way back in August 1988, the ATTF Accord had been signed in August 1993 while the NLFT Accord had been signed in May 2004, but none of the Accords has been fully implemented, specially in the matter of rehabilitating the returnees.
�There are altogether 10,000 returnees who continue to be deprived and who spend days in extreme penury as none of the promised benefits has been given; we have already formed 48 groups of the deprived returnees across the State and held meetings in Karbook, Ampi and Mungiakami areas while the meeting in Jampui Jala is on today� said Ananta. In the coming days more meetings of deprived returnees will be held in Raisyabari, Ambassa and Khowai, he added.
Ananta said that their planned move and agitational programme have already been endorsed by TNV, ATTF and NLFT.
He added that before launching the agitation, the TUIPC will exercise all democratic options to solve their legitimate demands.
He appealed to the State Government to take cognisance of the problems of the deprived returnees and settle them.
