HUGE response of the people across the state was witnessed as the five Left parties observed protest day on July 7 in Tripura. CPI(M), CPI, CPI (ML-Liberation), RSP and Forward Bloc had given the call on six-point charter of demands. The demands included decreasing the hiked prices of petrol and diesel; stopping the privatisation of national assets including coal, railways; generation of employment; monthly transfer of Rs 7,500 for six months to all families who are not income tax payers; providing all  with 10 kgs of food grains every month;  providing input materials including seed, fertilisers and assured irrigation to the farmers for the next kharif season and stopping attempts to curb democratic rights in the name of fighting Covid-19. In at least 55 places of the state, thousands of people came out in support of the demands. In several places, ruling party affiliated hooligans tried to disrupt the programme.  There were attacks after the programme too. But the spirit of the people was undaunted.

In Agartala,  CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Manik Sarkar,  Left Front convener Bijan Dhar, CPI(M) state secretary Gautam Das, CPI state secretary Ranjit Majumdar, Forward Bloc state secretary Shyamal Ray, Sudarshan Bhattacharya of RSP and other leaders of the Left Front participated in the programme.

Speaking at the human chain in Agartala,  Manik Sarkar said, movement to achieve these demands won't remain confined to this gathering for 15 minutes. People will come out of homes to raise demands as they are realising that sitting in the confines of houses will not solve their problems. People have stayed in houses to help the government during the lockdown to stop the spread of the virus. But now it is clear that nobody is in a position to predict when the pandemic will be over. The government is foolishly fixing deadline for manufacturing vaccine. Scientists across the globe have condemned this attitude. Vaccines cannot be brought to market by holding the researchers at gunpoint. If due procedure is not followed and necessary precautions are not adhered to, this will amount to playing with the lives of people. Manik Sarkar said, the BJP led government at the centre is hurrying to finish its unfulfilled agenda of liberalisation utilising the situation arising out of the lockdown and the pandemic. National assets like coal mines and railway are being sold out to the corporate houses. This will further increase unemployment. For more than 20 days at a stretch, prices of petrol and diesel have increased, putting further burden on the people when demand and prices of fuels are on a decline due to pandemic. Privatisation of coal mines will lead to retrenchment, wage cuts and eviction of tribal people from their traditional abodes. So people have no option but to protest.

Left Front convener Bijan Dhar said, number of Covid positive cases is rising in the state as a result of unplanned tackling and mismanagement of the situation by the state government. Our programme is for the necessary actions to be taken to fight the pandemic and overcome the economic slowdown.