GUWAHATI: Some 300 protesters were briefly detained by the police in Tripura on Monday during a 12-hour shutdown called by Twipra Students’ Federation (TSF). They were demanding the introduction of Roman script for the tribal Kokborok language and the passage of the Constitution 125th (Amendment) Bill. The TSF members held protest demonstrations in several parts of the state in support of the two demands. There was no report of any untoward incident, the police said.
In the past two years, TSF and Tipra Motha Party staged a series of protests to mount pressure on the government to address the two issues. Currently, the Bengali script is largely used for Kokborok language. The demand for Roman script gathered pace following reports that students were compelled to write answers for the Kokborok subject in the Bengali script in the CBSE board examination.
The Constitution 125th (Amendment) Bill’s passage will further empower 10 tribal autonomous councils in the Northeast, including one in Tripura. TSF president Samrat Debbarma said they had earlier petitioned Governor Satyadeo Narain Arya and Chief Minister Manik Saha seeking fulfilment of the two demands but no concrete steps were taken. He said as the government remained silent, they were compelled to call for the shutdown. He warned that the TSF would intensify the agitation if the government continued to remain indifferent.
Schoolgirls cook up abduction story
In strife-torn Manipur, the police were sent into a tizzy on Monday when three schoolgirls reported about escaping an abduction bid However, it soon turned out that they cooked up the story to escape punishment for bunking classes in school. It was reported from Nambol, 16 km from Imphal,