[ad_1]
Governor Indrasena Reddy Nallu said Monday that Tripura was suffering from social ills like child marriage and drug abuse and that people from Myanmar and Bangladesh were involved in the illegal drug trade in the border state.
“Tripura is a great state. People are great. I am going to tribal areas and rural areas. I have already visited one or two places. I visited hospitals. Health is one of the main focus areas here. But there are social problems like child marriage and drug abuse,” he told reporters at the Raj Bhavan after an event where Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed university vice-chancellors from the state via videoconferencing.
Nallu also said he had taken stock of the drug menace and that people involved in the illegal drug business in Tripura were operating from Myanmar and Bangladesh.
“The main people doing this business are from Burma and Bangladesh. They can’t just come here. Some local people are supporting them. How do they come?”
He requested the people to start a “social boycott” of “anyone who supports foreign people against the interests of the country”. “Such a social boycott might lead to a solution to the drug menace. The police are working effectively. Tripura has probably the highest drug seizures in the region. But people have to come together,” he said.
The state shares an 856-km-long border with Bangladesh, parts of which are still unfenced owing to local disputes, making it convenient for trans-border criminals to smuggle drugs, clothes, livestock and even people.
At PM Modi’s address to the vice-chancellors, the governor said the 21st century was important for Bharat and that the country would emerge as a powerful, ideological country.
He also said he would visit villages and far-flung areas of Tripura and hoped the state would turn into a gateway for the Northeast states after the connectivity projects like the Indo-Bangla friendship bridge at Sabroom in South Tripura are commissioned.
These projects are expected to provide Tripura, so far considered a landlocked state, with access to Bangladesh’s Chittagong and Mongla ports and open new trade routes.
[ad_2]
