PC ‘rescues’ Manik Sarkar
Marxist ideologue, who loves bashing Delhi Durbar finds comfort in Yojana Bhavan review of his Sarkar Show.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar finds in the Planning Commission data a protective shield to avoid the opposition bouncers. Shredding to pieces the Opposition case against his government, he quotes the Yojana Bhavan to contend that the ‘Sarkar’ rule is indeed a good one in the entire northeast.

The opposition has not bought his case; it has failed to get its no confidence motion carried through the state assembly, though. Intervening in the debate on the Congress-INPT sponsored no confidence motion, the chief minister said the Planning Commission had recorded a 15.55 percent industrial growth in Tripura, almost double the national average of 7.13 per cent.  “Our overall growth rate is assessed at 7.25 per cent and the national average is just 6.68 per cent”. 

The Marxist ideologue, who doesn’t miss an opportunity at bashing ‘Delhi Durbar’, found cool comfort in  another bench mark given out by the Yojana Bhavan. It relates to the agriculture sector. 

“Our agriculture growth is assessed higher than the national average, which is 3.08 per cent. Ours is 3. 35 per cent, according to them”, he said adding, “The Commission sees similar trend along a higher trajectory in the services sector. It gives us a growth rate of 7.53 per cent and it terms it as highly satisfactory, though we are slightly behind the national figure of 8.7 per cent”.

Chief Minister Sarkar felt that some policies of the central government were responsible for service sector not showing higher index like those of industries and agriculture. Rejecting the Opposition charge against his government, the Chief Minister quoted letter and verse from the Planning Commission documents to claim that under the present dispensation, Tripura is marching ahead of other states in the northeast.

According to him, the overall growth index in the region is as follows: Arunachal Pradesh- 4.10, Assam -2.49, Manipur -6.01, Meghalaya -6.00, Mizoram -3.79, and Nagaland 4.77. In the cut and thrust of the heated debate, Sarkar found no cold comfort in the statistics as the opposition taunted him with corruption charges. “Your government has notched up higher growth in corruption too”, thundered Ratan Lal Nath, the opposition Congress stalwart. Nath said corruption has become rampant in most departments. “PWD and Animal Husbandry have become citadels of corruption others are catching up fast with them”.

Taking another dig, the Congress MLA cited a report in the Tripura Observer to say that the state government has no expertise in executing public works and that calamity relief funds are being misused.   Jadavpur University experts would be coming to examine why Khayerpur bridge had collapsed.

Demolishing the Sarkar defences, Ratan Lal Nath asked why the Chief Minister took away from health minister Keshab Majumder the power of signing cheques for the Societies under the Health department. It clearly suggests something was really fishy, he said. Nath also alleged that Majumdar’s daughter-in-law was using a government phone at her Udaipur beauty parlour.

From the TUJS, Rabindra Debbarma said that there was something fishy in the fisheries department. Funds are misused, he alleged and complained that no fund was used in the Gandacherra sub-division.

Allegations and counter allegations became a crescendo and the debate became animated. At one stage when Rabindra Debbarma (TUJS) rushed towards ICAT minister Jitendra Choudhury and the watch and ward staff had to intervene to cool tempers. Debbarma was apparently enraged by the Choudhary remark that he as a minister had offered jobs for money.