Agartala: Former opposition leader Ratan Lal Nath on Friday claimed ‘past performance’ of the state is more important than that of the base year while determining state’s non-plan outlay.
Like other Finance Commissions, the XIV Finance Commission will also fix one particular year as the base year but it is not that much of important for the state, he said at a press conference here.
“What is important is that of the state’s performance in spending allocated fund meant for meeting the committed expenditure. Finance Minister Badal Chowdhury has been unnecessarily hyping the base year which doesn’t have that much of importance”, he said.
Over two lakh government employees and pensioners would be deprived of getting reasonable benefit if the state government doesn’t clear dues before April, he said.
Putting blame on the state government for not extending good salary and pension to its employees and pensioners, Nath, a Congress MLA said, “The Finance Commission is supposed to provide money to the state to meet committed expenditure. Notwithstanding, it recommends to give money in some specific development projects. It will not give money to the state which was not spent by the state government”.
Citing example of mathematical jugglery, he said the Finance Minister had told that the state needs Rs. 2,314 crore for meeting the non-plan expenditure during 2012-13 FY.
Interestingly, an amount of Rs. 2055 crore was spent for this purpose leaving a surplus of Rs. 342 crore. “This surplus money- Rs. 342 crore will not consider by the FC while determining the state’s non-plan outlay”, he said.
According to Nath, a group D employee is getting Rs. 2463 less (monthly) due to disparity in the DA while group- C employee is receiving Rs. 2976.
Likewise, each employee of group-B and group-A is getting Rs. 5232 and Rs. 7430 less respectively. “We appeal before the government to clear pending DA and grade pay if it wants to provide a reasonable pay structure and pension to employees and pensioners. Or else, they will be deprived of legitimate right of getting reasonable benefits”, he said.
Nath further said, “The state’s economy will be suffered once again if the government fails to project its committed expenditure properly before the XIV Finance Commission”.

Three tribal militants surrender in Tripura

Agartala: Three tribal militants, who had fled from their hideout in Bangladesh, surrendered to the Border Security Force (BSF) in Tripura, police said here Friday.
The Bangladesh-trained extremists have deposited two AK-series rifles and large quantities of ammunition.
Three guerrillas — area commander of the NLFT (National Liberation Front of Tripura) Pabanjoy Reang (25), deputy area commander Ananga Mohan Tripura (21), and sepoy Nripendra Tripura (20) — had recently fled from their Satchari camp in Sylhet district of eastern Bangladesh before entering into Indian territory.
“The three NLFT rebels surrendered to senior BSF officials and deposited their arms and ammunition at bordering Sidhai camp Wednesday,” police told reporters.
BSF have subsequently handed over the tribal guerrillas to the police.
The surrendered militants told the police that the militants hiding in Bangladesh camps were facing serious financial crisis. Besides, there are leadership quarrels among the terrorist leaders, said an officer.
Senior police officials are interrogating the militants to get details about the separatist outfits sheltering in Bangladesh.
According to the police and the BSF, there are many camps and hideouts of militants from northeast India in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and Sylhet areas Bangladesh.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar last week said the state’s separatist outfits are recruiting youths and have camps in Bangladesh though the security forces of the neighbouring country are cracking down on them.
“Currently, there are about 18 camps belonging to outlawed NLFT militants in various parts of Bangladesh, specially southeastern region of that country,” Sarkar had told reporters.
Tripura’s two banned militant outfits, the NLFT and All Tripura Tiger Force, have set up bases in Bangladesh and get support from other separatist outfits of the northeastern region.
They have been demanding secession of Tripura from India.
Tripura shares an 856-km border with Bangladesh, some of it unfenced and running through dense forests, making it porous and vulnerable. (IANS)