Demolition of illegal political structure begins in Tripura

The action began in Agartala where several illegal constructions were bulldozed by the district administration.

AGARTALA: The administration began demolishing illegal constructions and political structures built on government land across the state early this morning here.

The action began in Agartala where several illegal constructions were bulldozed by the district administration.

The Revenue department officials said that the new government has directed all eight district administrations to demolish all the illegal constructions built on government land.

Initially, the political party offices, including the ones of the ruling party would be destroyed across the state by next three days, followed by other illegal constructions.

The administration had announced to demolish all "unauthorised" political party offices, syndicates and trade union offices constructed on government lands after May 6 last as per the cabinet's decision and the demolition started early this morning.

"The illegal structures have not come up in one day.

It was built in connivance with the then ruling party that caused serious public disorder and inconvenience for the citizens.

Not only the party offices or their affiliated organizations, the people also occupied government land with the support of CPI (M) that hampered the development of the cities and towns," said BJP MLA of Agartala Ashis Kumar Saha.

He further alleged that the left front government in it's 25 yrs rule allotted precious government land to their favoured individuals and organisations without maintaining rule.

As a result, nothing could be planned properly, which made the historical city ugly.

All the footpaths and drains were encroached by some unscrupulous businessmen and individuals.

The city dwellers lost their inherent right of walking on the footpaths, he stated.

"The waterbodies were either encroached and cemented or became a dumping ground of waste in Agartala. All the major roads of the city became hawkers' zone and parking area. There is no minimum scope of walking safely on the street. Waste management and sewerage treatment of all the 20 municipalities have broken down that made life terrible. The new government has started to clear the land and cleaning the drains and soon other problems will be addressed," Saha added.

On the other, both the opposition CPI (M) and Congress criticized the move and demanded its rollback.

Pradesh Congress president Birjit Sinha said his party would resist the effort to bulldoze party offices and protest even if curfew was imposed.

CPI (M), however, said it would not put up resistance but said legal recourse would be sought.

"After BJP-IPFT coalition government came to power, they started capturing Congress party offices indiscriminately and now the government has given demolition notices to valid party offices," Sinha alleged adding that it was a political vendetta.

"The party offices or syndicates never create any nuisance or trouble to general people, what is the logic for sudden demolition of such political offices. These offices are standing for 40-50 years, I can't understand why all of a sudden they have decided to demolish these offices," Sinha argued.

The CPI (M) state secretary Bijan Dhar said that the government order to bulldoze illegal political structures was a bid to "legalize" an effort to halt all left political activities, which was previously perpetrated by BJP and IPFT supporters.

"Our party offices and trade union offices were attacked, demolished, captured by goons. Now the process is being legalized by adding administration in the process," Dhar alleged.

According to report, more than 300 such illegal political constructions and structures were identified so far across the state and identification of private occupations were about to be completed by next few days for demolition. 

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