Agartala: The Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) led by principal opposition party TIPRA Motha got itself embroiled in a fresh controversy this week after a colleague in the opposition bench CPIM launched a blistering attack on it. The sum and substance of the allegations directed towards the ADC authorities was that the biggest water body of Tripura, which falls under their control, was for sale.
CPIM’s SC and Tribal wing launched joint agitation programmes in Agartala city seeking a response from the ADC authorities on what grounds the sprawling water reservoir was being handed out to a private agency depriving the destitute fishermen community of the area.
The Dumboor Lake, spread over an area of 4,500 hectares, is located in the Dhalai district of Tripura, around 130 kilometers from capital Agartala. Apart from being a hotspot of commercial pisciculture, the state’s only archipelago known as Narikelkunja also falls in it. Thousands of tourists from different parts of the state gather there to enjoy the picturesque natural greenery dotted by the chain of islands.
Speaking on the issue, former MLA and senior CPIM SC leader Sudhan Das alleged that the TTAADC led by TIPRA Motha is heavily inspired by the policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party which was why the Dumboor Lake is being leased out to private agencies. He said, around 7,000 to 8,000 fishermen who earn their living through fishing would be left high and dry if the project is pulled off successfully.
“We have been informed by the local fishermen that fishing has been suspended for two years. The total control of the water body is now being taken over by a private entity. The way the state government has adopted the policy of privatization from their Delhi bosses, the ADC administration has now started to follow in the footsteps of the state. According to our estimates, 8,000 fishermen left at lurch to give way for the corporate entry,” said Das.
Das also discussed the historical background of the water body. “Dumboor Lake came into existence after Tripura’s first hydel power project was launched in the year 1971. Vast swathes of land including old settlements known as Raima, Sarma, some parts of Raisyabari, Kalajhari, and Dhalajhari etc. got deluged in water permanently. The project rendered thousands of people homeless and Dumboor turned into a deserted area,” said Das.
Crediting the Left Front government for bringing dormant Dumboor lake back to life, Das said, “When the Left Front government was formed, opportunities of fishing utilizing the vast wetland were created. It resulted in a mass exodus of people who later adopted fishing as a permanent source of livelihood. Three months a year, fishing is prohibited in the water body. Each of the registered fishermen receives an assistance of rupees one thousand from the fisheries department in those three months.”
The CPIM and its tribal arm Ganamukti Parishad had threatened intensive protests and demonstrations if the decision was not repealed.
Meanwhile, the fishery department of Tripura has a starkly opposite story to tell. “TTAADC, the Tripura government, and the local public living in and around the water body are the stakeholders in the project. The National Bank For Agriculture And Rural Development (NABARD) is also involved in the project. This is a PPP model project which is prepared in a way that the collection of revenue from the water body experiences a leap using the locally available manpower,” a senior official of Tripura Fisheries Department has said.
On being contacted, Executive Member Fishery Rajesh Tripura dismissed the allegations leveled by the CPIM party. He said, either the CPIM leaders were misguided by some vested interest quarters or they were consciously misleading the people of Tripura.
“This project stands upon a couple of strong pre-conditions advanced by the TTAADC. The investor agency has acceded to all our conditions. We have said that all the fishermen associated with fishing have to be employed by the agency. Their lives should be insured. Local manpower should be used for all administrative functions. It is after that much homework, the agency was allowed to work in Dumboor,” Tripura told EastMojo.
According to Tripura, the lake will be prepared for releasing high-yielding varieties of fish for the next two years. “In these two years, the registered beneficiaries will receive monthly financial assistance from the TTAADC. We have conducted a review of the fishermen in the area. People keep projecting exaggerated figures of the fishermen but according to our survey, the total number of active fishermen in the area stands at 1,600. The number of semi-active fishermen is around 400. The active fishermen will get a monthly assistance of Rs 9,000 while the rest of the others will get Rs 5,000. We are still considering increasing the assistance we are going to provide in this gestation period.”
According to Tripura, many people have enrolled themselves in the register of fishermen in order to receive the three-month cash dole which is provided every year in the off seasons.
“We haven’t given the water body in lease. This is a public-private partnership to enhance the production of fish using the available infrastructure. We are giving our water body; the agency will oversee all the technical interventions required. This is a move to bring investment and generate revenue for the public welfare schemes.
The TTAADC is under tremendous fund crunch. If we can create sustainable revenue generation models for the autonomous body, it would further strengthen the institution as a whole,” Tripura asserted.
Local sources in Dumboor informed EastMojo that the ADC administration was compelled to decide because of sheer misuse of the resources in the lake.
“The local politicians had exploited the lake which is why the commercial fish farming in the lake could not be scaled up to the level of its true potential. Handing over the lake to a private agency is going to permanently end the power struggle between BJP and TIPRA Motha leaders to take control over the resources of the lake,” said a fishery officer posted at Gandacherra.
The Tripura water body comes under the jurisdiction of three fishery subdivisions.
It is worth noting here that fish is considered to be a staple food of Tripura. It is an unavoidable part of the daily platter for both Bengalis and Tribal communities. Per capita fish consumption in Tripura stands at 26.6 kg per year.
Fisheries Minister Sushanshu Das recently announced a project to restore all the unutilized water bodies to cut short fish imports from Bangladesh and Andhra Pradesh. Against an annual requirement of 1 lakh 13 thousand Metric Tons of fish per year, Tripura can only produce 83,000 Metric Tons.
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