Retrenched Tripura govt school teachers form human chain in protest

Over 10,000 retrenched Tripura government school teachers and their family members formed a human chain here on Friday to press for their reinstatement in service immediately.

Another group of teachers who are on indefinite relay hunger strike for 55 days on the same demand did not, however, join the agitation. A total 10,323 retrenched teachers and their family members gathered under the aegis of the Joint Movement Committee in front of Mahatma Gandhi statue near the Circuit House and formed the human chain.

They appealed to Chief Minister Manik Saha and his cabinet to reinstate them at the earliest.

The teachers are without jobs for the past 37 months.

The protestors threatened to hold a 'Mahakran Abhiyan' (walk to the secretariat) if the government did not pay heed to their appeal.

Dalia Das, one of the protesting teachers, urged Chief Minister Manik Saha to hold a second meeting on the reinstatement issue with his legal advisers as the first held on November 22 had failed.

Kamal Deb, another retrenched teacher, said altogether 146 schoolteachers, who were sacked following the Supreme Court direction which upheld the HC order that their appointment procedure was illegal had died facing economic crisis.

“We appeal to the chief minister to look into our problem without any delay given that state assembly elections are drawing near,” he added.

The Tripura assembly election is due by March. The school teachers including undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate teachers were inducted in different phases since 2010. The Tripura High Court had ordered termination of their services in 2014 due to the faulty recruitment process. They had then moved the Supreme Court, which upheld the HC order. The teachers' services were terminated over three years ago after the apex court's order.

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