AGARTALA, June 15 (TIWN): In one of his rare interviews to national media, Tripura Chief minister Manik Sarkar has boasted about poverty alleviation in his state and dismissed child selling as a 'thing of the past'. The country's only chief minister has thus conveniently overlooked the sale of a newborn child in Khowai's Mundabasti by a poor tribal couple earlier this month. The sale of their newborn child by Ranjit and Sima Tanti was widely reported even in the national media. Even the BBC ran a story on the child sale. A NGO has since recovered the child from the adopting couple. But as if this never happened, Sarkar told the Times of India without batting an eyelid : " During Congress regime, there were cases of parents selling children due to starvation. But these are things of the past". His boast continued : " We’ve provided highest MGNREGA employment in the country. Our literacy rate’s above 90% – topmost in the country. Investors are showing interest in Tripura. If we go by statistics based on people living below the poverty line, it’ll show a different picture because the survey was done way back in 1997. BPL population was 68% then. We’ve been requesting the Centre to conduct a survey but nothing’s been done. Statistics aren’t correct. They’d hover below 50% now." Manik Sarkar was on tougher ground when asked about the dwindling Left performance across the country.

Manik Sarkar told a lie when he shamelessly uttered "During Congress regime, there were cases of parents selling children due to starvation. But these are things of the past."

The interview appeared on the edit page of all TOI editions on June 15.

Manik Sarkar's interview in TOI

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/the-interviews-blog/afspa-over-as-tripura-trusted-government-over-militants-aap-only-pretends-its-radical-manik-sarkar/?utm_source=TOInewHP_TILwidget&utm_campaign=TOInewHP&utm_medium=NavLi_Stry