All Tripura Indigenous Regional Parties Forum, a body formed by non-Left tribal parties today called for a 12-hour strike in Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) on Wednesday against the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 introduced by the BJP-led NDA government.
"Three indigenous political parties have formed the forum to safeguard and protect the interests of the tribals in the state who form one third of the population.
"We are of the clear opinion that the bill is detrimental to the interest of indigenous people. So, we have formed this forum," its convener Mebar Kumar Debbarmaa said.
The parties who have formed the forum are Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), National Council of Tripura (NCT) and Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT).
Stating that the forum would organise peaceful movement on issues concerning tribals, Debbarma alleged that the Centre plans to provide citizenship status to foreign people, which is against the interest of the tribals.
"States like Assam and Tripura are facing trouble due to infiltration by foreign nationals. If the bill is passed in the Lok Sabha, lakhs of foreign people will get citizenship status which would be a serious threat to indigenous people.
"Moreover, it is an anti-secular stand of BJP," Jagadish Debbarma, General Secretary of INPT, who is also the joint convener of the forum said in the press conference.
Animesh Debbarma, the joint convener of the forum and president of the National Council of Tripura (NCT), said the forum would extend all support to the dusk-to-dawn strike on February 8 in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC).
The Tribal council area constitute two third of the state territory.
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