- Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura
A group of retrenched 10,323 teachers in Tripura were thwarted in front of Circuit House here in Agartala city when they proceeded towards the Civil Secretariat for a deputation with the Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Monday.
These sacked teachers are still sitting in front of Circuit House near Gandhi Statue on Monday evening and their leaders reiterated that until and unless the government comes up with a solution, they will not move from here.
Reportedly, thousands of teachers including females under the banner of 10,323 Joint Movement Committee gathered in front of Swami Vivekananda Maidan here in Agartala to march to Civil Secretariat for giving deputation as part of ‘Mahakaran Abhiyan’.
A huge contingent of Tripura State Rifles led by higher police officials of Sadar sub-division prevented the march of teachers to proceed to the Secretariat. The TSR personnel stopped the sacked teachers’ group and asked them to leave the place as permission was not given to move to the secretariat.
As the situation is going out of control, the police closed down all roads in the northern part of Agartala city.
At one point of time, when the retrenched teachers were peacefully raising voice against the silent role of government for them, one police officer ordered lathi-charge on those people leaving more than 20 teachers including females injured.
Speaking to reporters, a leader of 10,323 JMC Bijoy Krishna Saha said “We will not move from here till the Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb doesn’t meet with us. Amongst us, many teachers were injured then also we want to meet you or else we will take the path of suicide”.
He said “The government and its police had carried out the worst task against them. Education department did not issue any termination notice till now, but all 10,323 teachers were terminated en masse”.
“Besides, the state government also violated the order of the Supreme Court on placement of the retrenched teachers as solace and then the chief minister backed out of his commitment to resolve our problems within two months” alleged Bijoy.
