• Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura

Tripura Cabinet have decided to allow legislators enjoy full-fledged facilities, after completing a tenure of five years.

The decision has been approved by the council of ministers under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, during a meeting of the Tripura cabinet held on Tuesday afternoon.

Addressing a press conference at Civil Secretariat in Agartala city on Tuesday evening, the cabinet spokesperson and Information & Cultural Affairs (ICA) minister Sushanta Chowdhury stated of amending the decision.

He further announced that the legislators elected should complete at least one term to attain the facilities and allowances for the rest of their lives.

“The erstwhile Left Front government had framed law that a legislator must complete 4 years as legislator of the Tripura Legislative Assembly to get the benefits post retirement or on being defeated in the subsequent elections” – informed Chowdhury.

“The BJP-IPFT coalition government after its formation way back in 2018 in Tripura, felt that it was necessary to bring a change in the law. Bt it was seen that due to the law the MLAs had become less accountable”, Chowdhury told reporters.

He also said “We feel this is a positive step as we have seen that the CPIM legislators had stepped out of the assembly when the allowance and decision was taken. They had opposed the decision but outside the assembly they used to request us to increase the allowances from the existing one”.

“The outcome of the decision will be known in the long run because the decision was needed of the hour. Now, the MLAs would not be able to do anything against the ethics” – added the ICA minister.

It’s pertinent to note that the decision undertaken will have its immediate effect on the two legislators from the ruling BJP-IPFT parties who have decided to exit from the party and for anti-party activities.

Such legislators include – IPFT MLA Brishaketu Debbarma and BJP MLA Asish Das.