Tripura government stands firm, IPFT forced to call off blockade

From A Correspondent

Agartala, July 20:  The tough stand taken by the administration led the Indigenous Peoples’ Front of Twipra to withdraw their eleven-day long rail and road blockade on Thursday, early in the morning.  A police jeep with a loudspeaker entered the Baramura hills around 4 am where the blockade movement was going on, announcing the proclamation of section 144 and asked the crowd to vacate the place.

Milind Ramtake, district magistrate of West Tripura and the SP Abhijit Saptarshi spoke to the agitation leaders, requesting them to withdraw the blockade. Immediately after that the IPFT president gendra Chandra Debbarma went inside the hill and announced the decision that the blockade had been withdrawn. He reportedly told the gathering that the Centre had agreed to concede to their demand which instantly created an atmosphere of jubilation among the agitators. Young boys and girls were seen shouting slogans of victory of their agitation.  Mr N C Debbarma also told the reporters that though the Centre had conceded to their demand but it had created much confusion because of the absence of any official communication.

Despite the confusion, over two thousand agitators immediately came out of the hill and left towards their respective places by vehicles that were kept ready by the State administration.  Though the road was cleared the authorities did not allow the vehicles to ply through the tiol Highway till evening. SP Abhijit saptarshi said they were checking the road and wanted to fully sanitize the area before opening it for vehicular movement. The railway services, however, will take some time to resume. All the internet and SMS services were suspended during the operation to check any unpleasant incidents on the social media.  BJP state president Biplab Deb in a press conference showered all credit to the governor Tathagata Roy and said his effective initiative had solved the problem. He also came down heavily against the State government for its failure in tackling the issue.

He alleged that the agitation was instigated by CPI (M) to foment commul tension in the State which they use to do before every election. This time their calculated move had been botched because of intervene of the BJP that exposed the party.