Tipra Motha MLA Ranjit Debbarma Monday urged the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) to cancel special benefits available to indigenous women if they were found marrying non-tribals.
In a letter to the NCST chairperson, Ranjit Debbarma claimed non-tribal men were marrying indigenous women to avoid paying taxes.
“…They purchased landed Property without paying Taxes to the Government and (started) deforestation in the TTAADC Jurisdiction. Most alarming issue is that the non-S/T Boys purchased plot of Lands with vast areas of land of TTAADC Areas. Subsequently, making gardening and rubber plantation,” the letter reads.
“In a nutshell, in every sphere of life they exempted from Government Taxes by doing such wedding with the Tribal Girls. Under the above, I do hereby request you to make necessary early effective action on your part to stop immediately such wedding ceremony by the Non-Tribal (Non-S/T) Boys with the Tribal Girls in the State of Tripura and for cancellation of the whole S/T facilities of the candidates who already completed such wedding ceremony in the State of Tripura,” it further states.
In 2018, the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) – Tipraha faction had demanded a law scrapping the ST status of indigenous women marrying non-tribals.
The move came just four months after the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) in Meghalaya passed a Bill scrapping the ST status of tribal women marrying non-ST men.
