Tribal party to move SC for NRC in Tripura

Agartala: Tripura’s main opposition tribal party, the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT), would soon move the Supreme Court to press for their demand to introduce the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state, an official said here on Thursday.

“We would file a petition before the Supreme Court soon seeking order from it for introducing the NRC in Tripura. We would also hold a sit-in demonstration in New Delhi in November on the similar issue,” INPT General Secretary Jagadhish Debbarma told IANS.

He said that an INPT delegation would also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram in the national capital.

“Currently, the INPT has been campaigning in Tripura in support of five point demands — withdraw the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016; more constitutional power to the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council; introduction of inner-line permit in these areas; and inclusion of the Kokborok language in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution,” Debbarma said.

He said that last month the INPT had submitted a memorandum to the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India in New Delhi explaining the reasons behind the need of the NRC in Tripura.

“To muster support to introduce the NRC in the other northeastern states excluding Assam, we are in touch with the regional parties of Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram.”

Meanwhile, another tribal party, Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), the junior partner of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led alliance government, is also agitating in support of similar demands.

Besides, INPT and IPFT, six other smaller tribal based parties in Tripura are also intermittently organising agitations in support of the demands concerning the tribals, who constitute one-third of the state’s four million population.

The INPT is one of the oldest tribal-based parties in northeast India. (IANS)