CPI-M for more autonomous bodies

AGARTALA - The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Thursday demanded the creation of constitutional bodies to provide autonomy to tribals and non-tribals in backward and hilly areas and said Tripura was a model of democratic decentralisation.

“If constitutional autonomous bodies were formed for both tribals and non-tribals in backward areas across India, it would defuse the demand for separation or secession and develop those underdeveloped areas,” said CPI-M central committee member Bijon Dhar at a press conference in Agartala.

“Once the constitutional autonomous bodies formed, local people would be involved in the developmental process and they (locals) would administer themselves. Therefore, the centre and concerned state would allocate more funds for these local self-governments.”

The CPI-M also demanded more autonomy to the existing 16 autonomous district councils (ADC) in northeast India facilitating the socio-economic development of tribals, who constitute 27 percent of the region’s 40 million people.

Of the 16 ADCs, six are in Manipur, three each in Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram and one in Tripura.

“If necessary, the constitution should be amended to establish fresh autonomous bodies and to provide more autonomy to the existing ADCs,” said Dhar, also the secretary of the Tripura state committee of CPI-M.

Dhar said: “Tripura is a model in the entire country where democratic decentralisation process among the tribals were exceptional in India. This was evident from the compliments from the Planning Commission, central ministers and senior officials.”

He said ministers, senior leaders and officials from the Congress and non-Left party-led state governments had visited Tripura in different times to learn from the Left Front government how to effectively run autonomous district councils for the tribal people.