Agartala: Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) on Friday released its polls manifesto for the forthcoming TTAADC (Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council) elections with a set of promises to strengthen the district council areas both economically and socially.
TPCC President Pijush Biswas said, “The basic things that we desperately want to ensure for the TTAADC areas have been scripted pointwise in our poll manifesto. We hope that the people of the TTAADC areas will rest their support towards Congress to witness the real development”.
Taking over from him, Congress’s Manifesto committee chairman and retired professor Manik Deb said, “After the prolonged misrule of the Left and a rather disappointing three years of the BJP-IPFT alliance in the state, district council areas remained the most deprived. If compared to the health infrastructure, education and other basic facilities of other parts of the state, ADC areas are far behind due to the apathy of the government”.
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Terming Congress as the only party having a vision of change, he added, “We want that people of ADC areas also get the equal opportunity of education, healthcare and employment”.
He said the focus has been placed on direct funding for the TTAADC areas in the manifesto.
“The Congress party does not believe in funding through the state. The ADC areas must get direct funding from the Centre so that the elected council can use it fully for the development of the state. If the Congress is voted to power, the party will pass a resolution in this regard”, said Deb.
Moving ahead to the next important point, he said, “The TTAADC areas cover almost 70 per cent of the state’s total land but still there are only 28 constituencies. Congress wants the constituencies to be increased to 60."
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Deb also alleged that in the name of budget the previously elected councils only cheated the people of Tripura.
“Last year the budget of TTAADC was Rs 1,100 crore whereas the state budget was around 20,000 crore. The level of deprivation was clear. Congress would make a budget that would be equivalent to 40 per cent of the state budget if voted to power. The Congress would also constitute a planning board for the TTAADC with the responsibilities to chalk out strategies for socio-economic development of the ADC areas”, Deb added.
The Congress party also stressed the importance of MDC (Member of District Council) development funds like MLAs and MPs and also assured that a University in the name of Indira Gandhi would be opened in the TTAADC areas.
