Rajnath calls Tripura tribal leaders to discuss NRC

Agartala : Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will meet tribal outfit INPT's leaders in Delhi on October 4 to discuss their demand for a National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Tripura, a party leader said here on Monday.

"Following our request, the Home Minister has called Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) President Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl and General Secretary Jagadhish Debbarma to New Delhi to discuss the demand," INPT Advisory Council Chairman Srota Ranjan Khisa told IANS.

Khisa said: "Tripura's main opposition tribal party will also file a petition in the Supreme Court soon to seek introducing of the NRC in the state. We will also hold a sit-in in New Delhi in November on the issue."

He said that the INPT last month submitted a memorandum to the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India in New Delhi on the reasons for the need of the NRC in Tripura.

The INPT has been campaigning in Tripura in support of its demands -- withdrawal of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016; more constitutional power to Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council; introduction of inner-line permit in these areas; and inclusion of Kokborok language in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution.

Another tribal party, the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) which is a junior partner in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance government, is also agitating in support of similar demands.

Six other smaller tribal parties in Tripura have also been intermittently voicing their support for demands concerning the tribals, who comprise one third of the state's four-million population.