‘Historic day’ as Suvendu interacts virtually with Alipurduar’s Totopara residents

For the first time, a Bengal chief minister interacted with residents of Totopara or the Toto community in Alipurduar, on Friday, albeit virtually from Jhargram.

The Totos are one of the country's particularly vulnerable tribal groups.

On Friday, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari launched the distribution of special food packets among Toto families. The programme was organised as part of a state government initiative to provide nutritional support to three particularly vulnerable tribal communities — the Toto, Lodha and Birhor — under the Centre’s Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) scheme.

"The scheme will incorporate biometric verification to ensure that no eligible family is deprived. Each family will receive a special package containing essentials such as rice, pulses and cooking oil, along with nutritious food items such as soybeans and ragi. This will be provided over and above their regular ration," said the chief minister.

Suvendu, who remained virtually connected with residents of Totopara for around 20 minutes, announced that the distribution of the special food packets had begun.

Each packet contains one kilo of rice, one kilo of moong dal, 500 mililitres of soybean oil, 2 kilos of ragi, 2 kilos of sugar, 300 grams of soybeans, 300 grams of sesame seeds and 1.5 kilos of jaggery. Each family will receive a packet every week.

Totopara, in the Madarihat block, around 68km from Alipurduar town, has around 450 Toto families, with a population of around 1,600. Food packets were distributed to 106 families on Friday. The rest are expected to receive theirs within two days.

State ministers Deepak Barman and Bishal Lama, Alipurduar MLA Paritosh Das, district magistrate Mayuri Vasu and district police chief Amit Kumar Shaw were present at Totopara during the programme. Two large screens were installed on the football ground of Totopara High School for the virtual interaction.

Bakul Toto, secretary of the Toto Kalyan Samiti, said Suvendu was the first chief minister in recent memory to interact with the particularly vulnerable tribe. "It's a historic day for us," he said.

Residents hoped Suvendu would listen to their grievances during his proposed visit to Totopara on November 15.

The Lodha community primarily resides in Purulia, Jhargram and West Midnapore districts, while the Birhor community lives in Purulia.

Minister Barman said adequate teachers would be appointed at Dhanpati Toto Memorial High School within six months.