AGARTALA: The Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) has reiterated its demand for holding of the village committee elections in Tripura at the earliest.
TIPRA, the ruling party in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) submitted deputations to district magistrates, sub-divisional magistrates and block development officers in the state.
The party handed over memorandums to the officials, addressing the Governor of Tripura, seeking his intervention to hold the polls in the village bodies.
The party argued that if the polls were not held immediately, the flow of funds in the village levels may get hindered as per the recommendations of the 15th finance commission.
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There are altogether 587 village committees across Tripura that fall under the sixth schedule areas.
“Formation of new village bodies is the need of the hour. Otherwise, Centre’s funding for carrying out development works would get stopped. Majority of the people living in village committee areas are already bereft of all basic facilities. In this scenario, any hindrance in flow of funds shall bring the development of scheduled areas into a standstill,” a TIPRA motha leader said.
He also made it clear that the party would also move the Court, if it feels necessary, seeking early elections in the village bodies.
“If our demands are not met through the democratic movement, we will be left with the path of seeking intervention of judiciary,” the leader said.
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Sources in the TTAADC said, as per the annual estimates, a village committee gets around Rs 1 crore for execution of various development initiatives.
The tenure of the elected village bodies came to an end on March 7, 2021, but due to a spike in COVID cases, polls were deferred.
“If polls can be conducted in UP, what’s wrong with village committees in Tripura,” the leader added.