Tripura promises Dipa smooth ride

AGARTALA: Tripura’s long-ruling leftist government gave its word to the state’s biggest mascot in many years — India’s first Olympic gymnast Dipa Karmakar — who

AGARTALA: Tripura’s long-ruling leftist government gave its word to the state’s biggest mascot in many years — India’s first Olympic gymnast Dipa Karmakar — who lives in Agartala’s Abhaynagar, a neighbourhood of narrow, potholed and muddy streets.

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The government decided to repair the road near her home after she and her family announced last week to return a BMW X1 gifted to her by Sachin Tendulkar on behalf of Hyderabad Badminton Association for her incredible performance in Rio de Janeiro this summer.

The Karmakars said the roads are too bad in Agartala and the carmaker doesn’t operate a workshop there.

The ruling CP-M was miffed. “Many costly cars ply on Tripura’s roads,” PWD minister Badal Choudhury remarked, while state CP-M secretary Bijan Dhar was more clear-cut: “They could have avoided mentioning the roads.”

But the communists mellowed as rivals BJP, Trinamool Congress and Congress accused the Manik Sarkar government of targeting Dipa for “telling the truth”.