By IANS,
Agartala : Mizo National Front (MNF) president and former chief minister Zoramthanga Thursday said the Congress government in Mizoram has “totally failed to serve the people” and praised the Left-ruled Tripura’s success stories.
He told reporters the MNF would project Tripura’s government’s success stories to vote out the Congress government in Mizoram in next year’s assembly polls.
“We would tell the people of Mizoram about Tripura’s success stories in bamboo, rubber cultivation and tribal development. The Congress government in the state has totally failed to serve the people,” Zoramthanga said.
“It could be projected elsewhere, how Tripura has successfully developed in rubber and bamboo cultivation. We want to execute Tripura’s experience in Mizoram for the development of the people, especially the tribals. Tripura and Mizoram can work together in various sectors like these along with natural resources for regional development.”
Zoramthanga, who was chief minister 1998 to 2008, is on a three-day tour of Tripura and visited a few rubber and bamboo plantations in the state and spoke to the cultivators and government officials.
Zoramthanga also held a series of meetings with Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, Forest, Industries and Commerce Minister Jitendra Chowdhury, Chief Secretary S.K. Panda and gathered their experience about bamboo, rubber cultivation and tribal development.
“To provide livelihood to the people and overall development of the state, bamboo and rubber cultivation in a sustainable manner is vital,” the MNF supremo said.
He said during the MNF government regime, massive infrastructure development projects including upgradation of roads and setting up of power projects were undertaken, but the present government has remained inactive in these matters, he alleged.
Zoramthanga said that Mizo nationalism has to be protected and the people should strive for economic self-sufficiency.
The MNF president claimed that the people of Mizoram are dissatisfied with the ruling Congress and would bring his party again to power in the next assembly polls, slated for December next year.
The MNF, a former militant outfit, is now a regional political party. After 20 years of militancy it had signed the historic ‘Mizo Accord’ on June 30, 1986. The party subsequently came to power under chief ministership of Laldenga (1986 -1988).
As per the Mizo Accord, Mizoram became a full-fledged state from Feb 20, 1987.