Agartala/Dharmanagar, September 24 (TIWN): Essential supplies for Tripura continued to be hit on the second day of the MIPRL economic blockade today with absolutely no sign of positive development.

A highly placed source in the state Transport Department today said that the state government authorities tried to resolve the issue of stranded supplies on the National Highway 44 as the Northeast Frontier
Railway (NFR) mega block scheduled to start on October 01 draws near.
The communication wasn’t successful anyway as situation turned grim with the death of two civilians during clash between rebellious MIPRL agitators and the police.
Local sources in Shillong informed that two persons were killed in a police firing at Bapung in East Jaintia Hills today evening. This came about when a mob challenged police personnel during the ongoing
economic blockade sponsored by the Movement for Indigenous Peoples’
Rights and Livelihood (MIPRL) to protest against the National Green Tribunal ban on coal mining in the State. The police resorted to firing at about 5:45pm while trying to control the agitating crowd. During this, two persons were killed. The deceased have been identified as Setly Phawa and Bires Siangshai.
Tripura faces crisis as the frequently disrupted rail connectivity between Agartala and Lumding would be totally stalled for the entire duration of Broad Gauge conversion scheduled to start from October 01
this year. The gauge conversion work would be conducted in two separate phases with Lumding-Silchar segment going in the first phase.
The state experienced frequent disturbance in induction through railways as the Lumding-Agartala rail route had four landslides due to excessive rainfall in the last four weeks.