Agartala: Tripura parliamentary affairs minister Ratan Lal Nath on Monday accused the opposition CPM of illegally occupying govt land to build party offices during its years in power, and called for strict action, including demolition of such structures.Speaking on the concluding day of the Tripura assembly’s budget session, Nath said the govt should use “bulldozers” to remove illegal party offices built on encroached land. He made the remarks while responding to a query by CPM MLA Shyamal Chakraborty on alleged encroachments on govt land at Boxanagar in Sepahijala district.Nath told the assembly that the govt had already started acting against illegal land occupation and said the sub-divisional magistrate had intervened in such cases.He alleged that CPM, while in power, misused more than 100 kani of govt land for unauthorized rubber plantations. He also backed CM Manik Saha’s ongoing drive to recover encroached land and demanded demolition of all illegally constructed CPM offices.According to Nath, the alleged encroachments took place across Tripura on both govt and private land and, in some cases, triggered violent clashes.CM Saha supported Nath’s claims by citing a case from Amarpur in Gomati district.In that case, a CPM party office was found to have occupied 556 square feet of govt khas land illegally. Eviction proceedings were initiated in May 2018 by the sub-divisional magistrate’s court in Amarpur, followed by an eviction order from the Gomati district administration.The CPM later challenged the decision in the high court, but its petition was dismissed, upholding the eviction order.
