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Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tripura and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ratan Lal Nath said on Wednesday that those who accuse the government of budget deprivation are “hypocrites”.
Nath’s comment came a day after Tippera Mutha Pradyut President Kishore Manikya Deparma and opposition leader Animesh Deparma accused the government of denying budgetary allocations to the Tripura Autonomous Tribal Areas Council (TTAADC).
Speaking to the media, Nath said that the current state government has created a “new record” in commitment to tribal development by allocating 39.81 per cent of the development fund in the Rs 27,654 crore budget.
“Of the Rs 14,086.42 crore appropriation as Development Fund in the budget, up to 31 per cent has been allocated to tribal development and with the Rs 5,608.72 crore tribal sub-plan allotment, the allocation to tribal welfare is up to 39 per cent,” he said. He added that the allocation of nearly 40 percent of the development fund to about 31 percent of the tribal population in the state indicates the size of the state government’s intention to develop tribal communities.
He further said, “Rs. 795.15 crore has been allocated to tribal welfare in the latest budget. This year, Rs 1,024.46 crore has been allocated to the sector. In addition, the allocation for the tribal sub-plan has been increased to Rs 888.33 crore for the welfare of the tribes living inside and outside the council.” Autonomous Region.
Nath, who serves as Minister of Law, Power, Agriculture and Parliamentary Affairs, was accompanied by MLA Rampada Jamatya, who had served as Minister of Tribal Affairs in the previous government.
Nath’s calculations were in stark contrast to the claims of the Tipra leaders that only 2.7 percent of the state budget was allocated to the tribal council.
Shortly after the budget was passed in the House earlier this month, Pradyut Kishore Manikya Diparma took to Twitter and wrote, “It is appalling to see that the Government of Tripura has allocated less than 2 per cent of funds for TTAADC development. Nearly 70 per cent of land is under ADC and 35 per cent of the state’s population lives in ADC. This maternal remedy move is the reason why we are asking for more Tipraland.”
Describing the budget as a “deficit budget”, opposition leader Animesh Deparma said the state government had allocated only 2.7 percent of the total budget to the Tripura Autonomous District Tribal Areas Council (TTAADC), even though the tribal council manages 70 percent of the state’s geographic area.
Formed in 1982, the Tripura ADC is non-contiguously spread across all eight districts of the state and encompasses nearly 70 per cent of the state’s geographic area, housing a third of the state’s population from 19 tribal communities. While the Tripura ADC sets its own budget in the Tribal Council, it gets funding through the state government as budget appropriations. Apart from allocating funds to the ADC, the state government has carried out other development activities through the Department of Tribal Affairs.
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