After Congress MLA served notice to vacate Govt quarters, party says ‘inhuman and politically motivated’ move

Roy Barman, a former minister, has been living at the MLA hostel near Buddhamandir in Agartala for the past 13 years. He was asked to vacate his current quarters and submit a requisition for a new MLA hostel near ILS Hospital.

“… there is an urgent necessity to vacate those quarters occupied by you so that the Assembly Secretariat would proceed with necessary development activities in the interest of the Tripura Legislative Assembly. I expect you to vacate the quarters immediately and hand over the keys to the Superintendent of the MLA’s Hostel and submit a requisition for allotment of suits at the newly constructed MLA’s Hostel near ILS Hospital, Agartala,” read the notice issued by S K Majumder, Secretary, Tripura Legislative Assembly, on September 20.

While speaking to reporters at Congress Bhawan, Saha said on Sunday since Roy Barman recently raised voice against the alleged corruption of the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) and the Tribal Welfare Minister Bikash Debbarma in the recently held Assembly session, it triggered the action against the MLA. “This is part of a larger conspiracy. The government is harassing him (Roy Barman) to silence him as he is revealing its corrupt practices. This is not the first time that the ruling party has tried repeatedly to force him to vacate the quarters,” said Saha.

The Congress party recently met Tripura Governor N Indrasena Reddy and highlighted the alleged corruption by the BJP ministers and leaders, including Tribal Welfare Minister Bikash Debbarma who was accused of having amassing properties in the last one and a half years by taking advantage of his position.

On September 14, Tribal Affairs Minister Debbarma dismissed the charges as baseless, and said he would soon file a defamation suit against Roy Barman who had first flagged the issue. The minister, however, admitted that some other properties were registered in his name but said they were purchased earlier and only registered recently.

The row started in the first week of September when Roy Barman, who is also a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), flagged accusations of corruption in the Rs 1,400 crore World Bank-funded project introduced for the socio-economic development of tribal communities. The project was designed to be implemented through the Tribal Welfare Department.

During the discussion on the issue in the House, the Congress leader obliquely alleged that Debbarma had amassed wealth for himself and his family members in over a year since he started serving as a minister in the incumbent Manik Saha cabinet. The discussion saw heated exchanges, where the minister also levelled allegations against the Congress leader, too.

Leader of Opposition in the Tripura Assembly and CPIM MLA Jitendra Chaudhary later criticised the issue, saying the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party was trying to justify the allegations levelled against it by leveraging it with similar counter-allegations and setting a narrative that its actions were somehow justifiable.