Tripura: BJP's ally meets Amit Shah, demands separate tribal state

Agartala: A four-member delegation from the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), a BJP ally, met with Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Thursday,demanding a separate Tipraland, which constitutes two-third of the state territory.

Forest Minister Mevar Kumar Jamatia who also serves as the General Secretary of IPFT, met with Mr Shah and submitted him with a five-point memorandum.

Besides seeking a full-fledged Tipraland, the memorandum also calls for the submission of the report of the high-level modality committee for the development of tribal, which make up one-third of the state's population, a special recruitment drive for indigenous people, an amendment to the Sixth Schedule to empower the TTAADC and the inclusion of Kokborok, the tribal language in the Constitution’s eighth schedule.

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Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council

The IPFT's approach comes after the BJP-IPFT coalition lost the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) elections to the Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA), led by former king Pradyot Kishore Deb Barman, in April this year.

Deb Barman has urged for a grater Tipraland that would include tribals not just from the autonomous district, but also from other states.

The IPFT memorandum stated, "In order to defend the Indigenous people of Tripura's identity crisis, we express a strong demand for the creation of full-fledged Statehood- Tipraland based on the 6th Schedule areas, i.e., TTAADC of Tripura."

The IPFT delegates discussed the central government's High-Power Modality Committee for indigenous people's socio-economic, cultural and linguistic development.

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