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AGARTALA, JULY 24: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has promised the Tipra Motha Party (TMP) that a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls will be taken throughout the country, including Tripura. This was announced by TMP leader Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma after a meeting with the entire Election Commission in New Delhi on Wednesday.
A nine-member delegation of TMP, headed by Debbarma, called upon Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi at Nirvachan Sadan. The major demand made in the meeting was the earliest possible application of SIR in Tripura on the model being implemented in Bihar.
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Addressing the media after the meeting, Debbarma stressed that there was an urgent need for verification of voter rolls in Tripura. “Illegal migration is threatening our state as well as the Northeast region as a whole. Unless we detect illegal voters today, our future generation might suffer the cost tomorrow,” he cautioned. He was satisfied with the response of the ECI, observing that the Commission has agreed to conduct the revision exercise across the country.
In its written submission to the ECI, the TMP requested that there should be a serious door-to-door verification exercise in Tripura, reasoning that the exercise could be as rigorous as that which has been rolled out in Bihar. The party emphasized that Tripura is exposed by virtue of its 856-kilometre-long international border with Bangladesh, a large extent of which remains poorly fenced. That, they averred, has resulted in unchecked flow of illegal immigrants.
The TMP charged that unauthorized immigration has taken a deep toll on the socio-economic stability of the region and threatened the integrity of the electoral rolls. In the party’s view, this is endangering the democratic rights of indigenous tribal communities as well as tainting the fairness of the electoral process in the state.
The letter, countersigned by Debbarma and state ministers Animesh Debbarma and Brishaketu Debbarma, asserted that numerous undocumented migrants have gained important identity documents fraudulently, including Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs), Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, driving licences, and even passports. The party accused such activity to have been made easier by corrupt officers, neighborhood brokers, and politically linked individuals.
Moreover, the TMP cautioned that in a few instances, such migrants had even gone so far as to modify their official place of residence records in order to secure electoral benefits. “This is not a Tripura-centric problem,” the letter read. “It is now a national security situation with serious implications for the democratic fabric of India.”
