In a significant decision, the Tripura cabinet on Tuesday has made compulsory Permanent Resident of Tripura Certificate (PRTC) for any kind of compulsory government jobs.

Giving details of the cabinet decisions during a press conference held at Civil Secretariat on Tuesday evening, Tourism Minister Sushanta Chowdhury said that ‘it’s very important decision and government for past few months had discussed the issue in different occasions and finally after getting clearance from many departments, the state cabinet has taken this significant decision for the welfare of state’s people.’

He said that the government notification with immediate effect and from now  candidates applied for job for direct recruitment under state government, corporation, public sector undertaking (PSU) and any board under the state government  have compulsory need a PRTC for jobs categories of group-A,B, C and D including the competitive examinations under Tripura Public Service Commission (TPSC).

The new provisions have also given power for relaxation to the state government, whether the state government needs it to relax for requisite qualifications particularly for any special post like a scientist can allow the candidate for another state, if such required qualification will not be available from state’s candidates.

After a gap of months, senior Congress leader and MLP Sudip Roy Barman on Monday returned to active politics and highlighted an important issue after a deputation before the chairman of Tripura Public Service Commission (TPSC).

It may be recalled here that issuing PRTC, in which the TPSC and various departments of the state government had earlier allowed the candidates of other states to appear in the recruitment drives by relaxation of PRTC norms.

The opposition parties including CPI (M) and Congress on many occasions raised their objection for depriving the state’s candidates. 

Recently, senior Congress leader and MLP Sudip Roy Barman accompanied by former MLA Ashish Kumar Saha met the chairman of Tripura Public Service Commission (TPSC) Dr Alind Rastogi in a deputation demanding mandatory provision of Permanent Residence of Tripura Certificate (PRTC) with knowledge of Bengali or Kokborok, which to be induced as eligibility in all examinations conducted by TPSC.

The TPSC in its recent advertisements for recruitment to the post of Agriculture officers, the provision of PRTC with knowledge of Bengali or Kokborok has not been provided as eligibility criterion.

Surprisingly, for the post of Veterinary officers, the TPSC has provided the eligibility of PRTC with knowledge of Bengali or Kokborok, this gross mistake was brought to the knowledge of the secretary of TPSC on January 20th, 2023 last by a candidate, but nothing has yet happened.

Opposition leaders Jitendra Chaudhury and Sudip Roy Barman has also appealed to the authorities of TPSC to protect the greater interest of educated and unemployed youths of the state should bring mandatory provisions in all job advertisements of TPSC, so that candidates from other states of the country cannot be recruited in government’s jobs of Tripura.

They also said that the educated candidates of Tripura unable to sit public service commission examinations of other states, then why the candidates of Tripura being deprived as such qualified candidates are very much available in Tripura.

Apart from this, the state cabinet has also announced that the paddy procurement will start within a few days from 40 designated centres across the state and this time the government will procure a total of 35,000 metric tons of paddy directly from state’s farmers on minimum support price (MSP). For the procurement of paddy in the present ‘Kharif’ season, the state government will spend a sum of Rs. 85.64 crore, said Chowdhury.

The Minister said that after beginning  of paddy procurement from directly from farmers on minimum support price (MSP) since 2018-19 till August 2022, a total of 171,300 metric tons paddy has been produced from farmers of the state  and a total of Rs. 327 crore has been directly transferred to farmer’s account.