By IANS,
Agartala : An administrative committee in Tripura has found that a ruling Left Front legislator, Partha Das, had falsely claimed he belonged to the Scheduled Castes category, officials said here Tuesday.
“After a long probe, the screening committee of the directorate of the Scheduled Castes welfare department of the Tripura government has served a notice to Revolutionary Socialist Party’s (RSP) legislator Partha Das that he did not belong to the Scheduled Castes community,” a senior official told reporters.
The RSP is a partner of the ruling Left Front, dominated by the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The issue rocked the Tripura assembly recently and the state politics.
Das was elected in 2008 from south Tripura’s Shalgarah assembly constituency, reserved for the Scheduled Castes.
“The Left Front, which always advocates transparency and honesty, is illegally giving shelter to a fake certificate holder legislator,” opposition leader Ratan Lal Nath told reporters.
Reacting on the issue, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said: “The matter was under scrutiny of the screening committee of the concerned department. The government would accept the recommendations of the said committee. We would not give any shelter to any fake certificate holder.”
“Now, Das has to prove that his caste certificate is valid,” Sarkar added.
The West Tripura district magistrate had earlier in a report to the state government said that the Scheduled Caste certificate of Partha Das’s elder brother Chandan Kumar Das, a government doctor, had been cancelled.
However, Chandan Kumar Das filed a case in the high court against the Scheduled Castes department’s order, cancelling his caste certificate. The matter is now pending in the court.