IPFT to join separate state movement in Delhi next week

Agartala: BJP’s ally in the Tripura government, the Indigenous Peoples’ Front of Tripura (IPFT) is scheduled to join national convention and demonstration of National Federation for New States (NFNS) in New Delhi next week to press for their core demand of separate land for tribals in Tripura. A 23-member delegation headed by IPFT president and Revenue Minister of Tripura NC Debbarma and party’s general secretary and tribal welfare minister Mevar Kumar Jamatia would leave the state on Nov 13 next to attend the convention for next two days. As part of the program, as many as 30 political parties and organisations, demanding separate states in different parts of the country would join the demonstration at Jantar Mantar. The IPFT leaders here on Friday said that the party has been in NFNS since beginning with their core agenda to get separate Tipraland identity for the tribals. IPFT has came into existence in 1999 to pursue the demand of separate tribal land, considering the steady decline of tribal population over last five decades. The tribal population, which was majority till 1951, has declined due to influx of non-tribals from Bangladesh and after 1991 it has become worse and now the tribal people have become minority in the state. Supporting Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT)’s demand for NRC in the state, the IPFT leaders however, accepted the necessity of NRC for protection of the interest of the tribal population and indigenous life and culture. (UNI)