“It is really heartening to see that Tripura is still free from the communal virus. There has not been a communal clash here over the past decade,” Sangliana told reporters here last night.
Arriving here on Thursday, he visited different parts of the state, including the interior areas inhabited by various minority communities.
He also visited the Kanchanpur subdivision of North Tripura and interacted with the inmates of the Reang refugee camps and the Mizo people settled in the Jampui Hills.
“The Reangs actually belong to Mizoram and they must be repatriated. It is good that more than 200 families have returned on their own but the government of Mizoram must take an initiative to help their cause,” Sangliana said.
The Centre and the Mizoram government, he said, should take a joint and sincere initiative so that the Reangs could return to their homeland and live with honour and dignity.
Asked if it was desirable to extend the benefit of reservation (for jobs and education) to religious minorities all over the country following the reservation for Muslims given by the West Bengal government, Sangliana said: “The Centre has its own policies on reservation and if it appears to be very essential, a decision will definitely be taken.”
He, however, said the reservation benefits even for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes “cannot continue for eternity”.
“Reservation benefits for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have been in vogue for a very long time but I do not think this has yielded much results, this should not continue for eternity as this leads to fall in moral standards and erosion of self-confidence,” he said.
He appreciated the implementation of various schemes and projects by the Manik Sarkar government for the development of minorities.
“In this state I have received no allegation of deprivation or discrimination in the course of my interaction with representatives of minority bodies though there are demands and grievances like in many other places. However, no body has accused the government or the majority community of deliberate or planned deprivation or discrimination,” he said.
He added that the national minority commission has divided the country into five zones and he has been put in charge of the Northeast, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattishgarh.
“I will come to Tripura from time to time to take stock of the situation though I am more or less satisfied with the political tradition and culture here,” Sangliana, who had met senior officials of the state government, including the chief secretary S.K. Panda, said.
