Tripura: Police Use Water Cannon To Stop Protest Rally Of Sacked Teachers

Agartala, Sep 23: The police on Wednesday lobbed teargas shells and used water cannon to disperse protesting school teachers here, who had lost their jobs because of faulty recruitment policy. The police also baton-charged the teachers, who were marching in a procession towards the state secretariat demanding alternate government jobs, after a scuffle ensued when they were stopped near the Circuit House.

Daliya Das, the convenor of the ‘Justice for 10323 teachers’, the organisation of the sacked teachers, alleged that at least 10 of them were seriously injured and 70 others suffered minor injuries in the police action. The police, however, denied the claim.

“They broke road blockades set up by the police and tried to go ahead disregarding our warnings. We had to issue mild lathi charge and water cannon to disperse them. No one was injured,” Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) of New Capital Complex, Piya Madhuri Majumder said. A delegation of the teachers later met Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath.

After the meeting, Das said that the agitating teachers would meet Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, who is now in Delhi, after a week. “We think our movement today is successful. We shall meet Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb. If we are satisfied with the solution to be provided by the government, we shall suspend our agitation. But if the meeting with the CM does not yield result, we shall intensify it,” she said.

As many as 10,323 undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate candidates were appointed teachers in government schools in phases since 2010, when the CPI(M)-led Left Front was in power. The recruitment was challenged and the High Court of Tripura in 2014 terminated their services, holding the process “faulty”. The government moved the Supreme Court against the order but the apex court upheld the High Court verdict in March 2017. They were, however, appointed again on an ad-hoc basis.

After the BJP-IPFT government came to power in March 2018, it appealed to the Supreme Court, which granted them one-time final extension till March 31, 2020. Senior CPI (M) leader Badal Choudhury and state Congress president Pijush Biswas later visited the protesters and extended their support to the agitation.

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