Tripura tribal council to be renamed as Territorial Council of Tripura

A Correspondent

Agartala: A parliamentary standing committee has recommended a change in the nomenclature of the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council to Territorial Council of Tripura, increasing its number of seats from the existing 28 seats to 50 but outright turned down the demand for direct funding from the Centre.

Rajya Sabha MP Ananda Sharma who headed the Parliamentary Committee, after intense deliberations submitted its recommendations. These will not come into effect before the forthcoming election of the TTAADC scheduled to be held in the next three months but will give an advantage to the BJP as all these were their assurances.

Sources said the Parliamentary Committee has suggested TTAADC could be renamed as Tripura Territorial Council (TTC) as demanded by Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), a constituent of BJP- led government.

It has also backed the demand for increasing seat strength of the TTAADC from 30 to 50. Of the total proposed seats (50), the election may be conducted in 44 seats while the remaining six seats would be chosen by nomination, it suggested. A unanimous resolution was passed in the last Assembly session urging the Centre to increase seat strength of the tribal council.

Most importantly, the parliamentary panel has strongly objected direct funding to TTAADC from Centre bypassing the State Government. It has been reported that the Finance Commission had strongly opposed the concept saying that it would downplay the State’s power but a separate fund could be earmarked for the tribal council. If the recommendations are to be implemented, there is a need to change the constitutional provision but this will not be possible in the current session of the Lok Sabha because of time constraints. This could be done later on.

It confirmed the next election of TTAADC would be held in the existing format – 30 members because the present tenure of the incumbent council is scheduled to get expired on May 17. Interestingly, political parties are tight-lipped over the development.

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