AGARTALA: As political communication increasingly moves to social media, Tripura Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Tinku Roy has begun using video blogs to connect with residents and showcase development work in Kailashahar. In a series of videos released over the past five days, the minister has highlighted the area’s sporting legacy, new educational infrastructure and ongoing government construction projects, personally taking viewers through the sites and explaining their significance.
Unlike conventional political statements or recorded public addresses, Roy’s recent videos follow the style of personal vlogs. He walks around project sites, directs his cameraman to capture particular buildings and speaks directly to viewers, offering details about the infrastructure and its intended use. His latest video, uploaded on Sunday, November 15, focuses on the Rangalal Das Memorial Indoor Sports Hall in Kailashahar. Roy describes it as the second-largest indoor hall in Tripura and links the facility to the town’s sporting history.
“Do you know that this is the second-largest indoor hall in the state?” he asks viewers at the beginning of the video. He also recalls the contribution of Rangalal Das, after whom the hall has been named, describing him as a renowned sportsperson from the area. “Kailashahar has a long history of sports. Whether in yoga or other sporting disciplines, we have a golden history spanning around 50 years,” Roy says.
According to the minister, the facility was developed to carry forward that legacy and provide better sporting infrastructure for the younger generation. He said the hall was inaugurated during Durga Puja and could accommodate nearly 300 spectators, besides having office rooms and other modern facilities.
Education infrastructure has also featured prominently in his videos. On November 13, Roy visited Ramkamal Vidyalaya, where he spoke about the contrast between the school’s academic performance and its earlier infrastructure. “Although the infrastructure was of very poor quality, the academic performance of the students was excellent,” he said. Referring to the 2025-26 examinations, the minister claimed that two students from the school had secured places among the district’s top ten performers. He said the poor condition of the previous infrastructure had discouraged parents from admitting their children to the institution. Roy said residents had demanded a better school building and that he had subsequently approached Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha for support.
Also read | 77 Seats Go Uncontested in Tripura Civic Polls, CPI(M) Blames ‘Forced’ Withdrawals
According to Roy, Rs 15 crore was allocated for the construction of a new three-storey school building. He said the building would have the capacity to accommodate around 5,000 students and described it as one of the largest school infrastructure projects in Unakoti district. During the video, he also showed viewers the classrooms, highlighting the granite flooring, white marble fittings and other finishing work. However, he said additional teachers would be required once the school became operational and appealed to the Chief Minister to arrange the necessary appointments.
An earlier video, uploaded on November 11, focused on the condition of Ashram School in Kailashahar, which Roy said was approaching 80 years of age. Recalling its 75th anniversary celebrations two years ago, he showed the deteriorating walls and broken windows before taking viewers to the site of a new building being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 9 crore. He said the new three-storey building would increase the school’s capacity from around 500 students to nearly 2,000. Roy acknowledged that construction was progressing slowly but expressed hope that the project would be completed by December 2027.
The minister also used his November 12 video to showcase a new three-storey building for the Unakoti district Labour Department office in Kailashahar. He said the district office had operated for years from a rented, relatively small space on the second floor of a government shopping complex. The new building, he explained, would bring the Labour Department’s various manpower and employment-related offices under one roof. Roy expressed hope that construction would be completed within the next two to three months.
The videos offer a glimpse into a different style of political communication, with the minister personally presenting government projects instead of limiting his public outreach to speeches, press statements and official photographs. For a minister holding the Youth Affairs and Sports portfolio, the focus on sporting history, facilities for young people and educational infrastructure also connects his online outreach with the subjects under his responsibility.
As more people turn to digital platforms for information, the approach raises questions about how elected representatives communicate with the public. By showing projects directly and explaining their purpose, Roy is taking government communication to social media, while the claims and progress presented in these videos remain open to public scrutiny.
