By Firstdespatch Desk Apr 06, 2023
Agartala, Apr 6 (FD) A division bench of the High Court of Tripura has asked the state government to inform about the long pending issue of holding the elections of the village councils in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), which was due since March 2021.
The court has given its observation on Wednesday after a writ petition was jointly filed by the spokesperson of the TIPRA Motha, Anthony Debbarma and the party MLA, Brishaketu Debbarma on the same day.
The Division bench of the Chief Justice T Amartha Goud and Justice Arindam Lodh asked the Advocate General of the state, Siddhartha Shankar De, representing the state and the State Election Commission (SEC).
The Advocate General informed the court that he would reply any day after April 13.
Debbarma alleged that the state government was dragging feet on holding the elections for the 587 village committees in the tribal council area, which was due on March 7, 2021.
The TTAADC, which comprises two third of the state territory is home to the tribals, who form one third of the state’s estimated forty lakh population.
“We earlier also filed cases in the high court for early elections of the village councils, which are equivalent to Panchayats elections. When elections of Gaon Panchayats and urban civic bodies
Were held in time, the state government had adopted dillydallying tactics for village council elections”, Debbarma told reporters.
The TIPRA Motha swept the TTAADC elections held in 2021 by winning 18 out of 28 seats. Two members are nominated by the Governor of the state on advice of the state government in the tribal council.
The tribal based regional party bagged 13 of the 20 seats reserved for scheduled tribes in the state Assembly held on Feb 2 last and emerged as the second largest party in the state. FD JK