Tripura Assembly begins amid ruckus; oppn stage walkout

Agartala: Pandemonium rocked the Tripura Legislative Assembly on the first day of the 12^th session with Left legislators staging a walkout followed by a brief protest in the well of the House against alleged police brutality on four Left affiliate students and youth organisations.

CPI-M MLA Tapan Chakraborty sought to move an adjournment notice to discuss the matter in the state assembly at the very beginning of the two-day session but was rejected by Speaker Ratan Chakraborty.

Aggrieved by the Speaker’s role, the opposition MLAs came in front of the Speaker’s chair and started shouting slogans. The watch and ward staff also came down on the well and encircled the Speaker’s dais. Although the Speaker repeatedly requested the Left MLAs to refrain from disrupting the proceedings of the House, the CPI-M legislators did not pay any heed to the speaker’s requests and eventually staged a walkout from the House after a few minutes of protests.

The Left leaders, however, rejoined the proceedings after a gap of an hour.

The Leader of the Opposition, Manik Sarkar alleged that the Tripura government’s betrayal to the public had been caught ‘red-handed’ by the people of the state.

“They worked in the starkly opposite direction of what they had promised before the elections. The schools are running short of teachers, concerted efforts are being made to close the doors of schools for poor students; the Vidyajyoti scheme is a glaring example of that. There are over 24 colleges in the state but in only one college a full-time principal has been appointed. On all fronts, the government has failed to live up to the expectations of the public,” Sarkar said.

On the police brutality, he said on September 15 last four Left affiliate students and youth organisations wanted to organize a rally with three core demands: Education, employment, and freedom from the atmosphere of terror created in the state by the ruling party.

“What was the motive of their mass deputation programme? They wanted to communicate the issues to the Chief Minister of the state by meeting him. Such kind of democratic and peaceful protest is not new for Tripura. And, the demands that were raised by the Left supporters were also not exclusively for the Left supporters. The educated youth of the state is staring at the government for answers. They are restless to know what is their future but instead of hearing their grievances water canons, lathis and tear gas shells were used against the protestors,” claimed Sarkar.

The Leader of the opposition also slammed the ruling BJP for largely depending on violence to retain power. “The BJP has lost all hopes and thus they are depending on violence. On Thursday night, shops and houses belonging to opposition workers were ransacked, attacked, and even torched for attending our rally. Our leaders have visited the spot. During our visit, our MLAs took rest in front of a hotel. When we reached state assembly,  I was informed that the hotel also came under attack in the broad daylight,” claimed Sarkar.  

Also read | Tripura: Cong urges CPI(M) not to give ‘oxygen’ to BJP by dividing votes