Tripura: ‘10,323 teachers’ body demands validation act in Assembly

Agartala: With just 12 days left from being terminated, the 10,323 ad-hoc teachers on Thursday once again gathered in front of Children’s park in Agartala violating section 144 of CrPc imposed by the state government as a precautionary measure to avert the spread of coronavirus.

Speaking with EastMojo, Sadar SDPO Anirban Das said that the over 5,000 teachers gathered in front of Rabindra Bhawan on Thursday for a rally that would submit a memorandum to education director UK Chakma.

“We have arrested around 4,000 teachers and they were taken in the premises of children’s park for unlawful gathering in city violating Section 144 imposed to avert the spread of coronavirus,” Das said.

While the state government has already ordered to shut down all educational institutions, gymnasiums, parlours, restrictions on marriage registration and biometric attendance have also been made across the state till March 31.

Speaking with reporters, All Tripura 10323 Victimized Teachers’ Association president Pradip Banik said that a memorandum to the education director was submitted.

“The director has promised to do the needful and place the file in front of the chief minister, education minister and education secretary by this evening. The government is working to save our lives and he has assured that very soon the government will do the needful to save the lives of 10,323 teachers’ families,” Banik said.

He also said that they have now reduced to 8,882 from 10,323 teachers. They have been demanding a solution to their problem for the last 10 years. “We believe the government will solve our problems by introducing the Validation Act in the assembly by next seven days,” Banik added.

The 10,323 teachers were recruited in different phases till 2010 in various post posts of graduate teachers, postgraduate teachers and undergraduate teachers. Later, a petition was filed challenging the recruitment of the teachers following which the court terminated the jobs of all 10,323 teachers terming the process as ‘unconstitutional’.

The then state government had filed a PIL challenging the verdict of the High Court, but the Supreme Court upheld the High Court’s verdict in March 2017.

The verdict of the Supreme Court had pronounced to retire the teachers’ retirement on December 31 last year, but following a petition by the state government seeking one-time relaxation, the apex court granted them to work on an ad-hoc basis till March 31, 2020.