Agartala :The CPI (M)’s top leadership has called upon the BJP led state government and ‘TipraMotha’ led ADC to go forward to help the distressed tribal people in the hilly interiors of the state.

They made the demand in an interaction with the media and on behalf of the party where former CEM ADC and senior tribal leader RadhacharanDebbarma and former MLAs RatanBhowmik and Sudhan Das spoke to media persons to relate their experience of how people are suffering in the interior areas which they visited recently. 

Under the leadership of politburo member and former chief minister Manik Sarkar, three senior leaders Radha charan Debbarma, Sudhan Das, and Ratan Bhowmik visited the remote Thalcherra and Manikpur under Chhawmanu block, Maldaroajapara, and Ganga Nagar under the Ganga Nagar block, Hatimatha, Dalpati and Ramnagar under Gandacherra block and interacted with the impoverished people there. They were also accompanied by CPI (M) leadership of the Dhalai district.

“ The state government and ADC should rush relief materials and help to the distressed people without any further delay; there is no question of politics involved here and if our help is south we are ready to help in the alleviation of suffering of people,” said Radha charan while interacting with the media.

He said that this year ‘Jhum’ crop has practically failed due to a lack of rainfall which prevented ‘Jhumias’ (shifting cultivators) from sowing seeds. In certain areas, MGNREGA work for ten days was done in the month of May after January but the wages have not yet been paid. 

“Strangely the number of ‘Sardars’ is much more than actual workers and as a result the amount of wages has come down from due Rs 227.00 to Rs 140.00 or 180.00; it is only in Ganga Nagar block that some gardening works are being done, this is the only ray of hope,” said Radhacharan, accompanied by Sudhan Das and RatanBhowmik.

He said that the tribal people of Thalcherra have been crossing over to Chittagong hill tracts of Bangladesh and collecting ‘Gandhaki’ but the price of this product has also fallen because of extortion by the BJP ‘Mandals’ that demand money from trucks coming from outside to carry them away.

Even in the production of flower brooms the same trend has set in. The prices that this product would fetch earlier have now fallen because of the extortion rackets of the ‘Mandals’ . “What is worse nowhere in the areas we visited salt is being given from ration shops as they are being sold out in the black market; only one litre of kerosene is given from ration shops but that is totally inadequate per month,” said RadhaCharan.

He gave many other details of the painful struggle of the tribal people in the interior areas and demanded immediate intervention of the state government as well as the ADC which has been sitting idle since capturing power in 2021.