Internally displaced people launch relay hunger strike in Tripura

Agartala: Hundreds of internally displaced people due to erection of barbed wire fencing along the Indo-Bangla border in Tripura today launched an indefinite relay hunger strike here to press for their 19-point charter of demands.

Unless they are given assurance in writing by the government that they will be properly rehabilitated the relay hunger strike will continue, Subal Bhowmick, President of the Simanta Bhumi Suraksha Committee (Committee for protection of soil in border) told reporters.

Tripura has 856 km long border with Bangladesh of which 675 km had been fenced to check infiltration of illegal migrants and Indian insurgents from fleeing to Bangladesh, illegal trade and trans-border crime.

Bhowmick said thousands of displaced people from different parts of the state would assemble in the state capital here to participate a central rally on February 14 next.

The state government has done little for the rehabilitation of the affected poor families even after receiving a hefty amount of money from the Centre, he alleged.

He said a sizable number of families were leading a miserable life after they lost their fertile land due to fencing.

The major demands include publication of names of 8500 families, construction of fencing along zero-Point to save the Indian soil, government employment for each affected family and allotment of alternative land for them.