Members issue no-confidence notice against Tripura tribal

Majority of the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) members have served a notice for bringing a no-confidence motion against the Left-run executive committee of the council, accusing it of failing to "fulfil the basic needs of the people".

The notice, signed by 15 of the 28 members of the TTAADC, was served on council chairman Ranjit Debbarma on Monday.

The signatories of the letter met Governor Ramesh Bais on Monday night and apprised him about the issue.

All the 28 members of the tribal council were elected on Left Front tickets in the elections held in 2015.

However, one member, Joykishore Debbarma, quit CPI(M) before the Assembly elections held last year and joined the BJP, which is in power in Tripura.

Joykishore is one of the 15 signatories of the letter while the remaining 14 members are from the Left Front.

"The executive committee has failed to fulfil the basic needs of the people living in the tribal council area. A section of the council is aggrieved against Chief Executive Member Radhacharan Debbarma.

"So, we have sent the notice to the chairman and also briefed the governor about the situation. A special session is likely to be convened after Diwali," Prati Ram Tripura, a member of the council, told reporters.

Meanwhile, opposition CPI(M), in a press statement, termed serving of the notice as a "conspiracy hatched by ruling BJP to grab the tribal council through the back door".

"There is no reason to express no confidence against the tribal council. The BJP-led government was depriving the council financially as it is run by the Left Front," the statement said.

The tribal council constitutes two-thirds of Tripura's territory and is home to tribals, who form one-third of the state's estimated 40 lakh population.

The TTAADC came into being in 1979 under the provisions of the seventh schedule of the Constitution and was later brought under the sixth schedule.