Agartala: The Tripura Legislative Assembly on the first day of the budget session witnessed uproar as Opposition CPI-M members started protesting over the rejection of an adjournment motion by the Speaker that was placed to hold a discussion on the 10,323 teachers facing termination on March 31.
Soon after finance minister Jishnu Dev Varma finished his budget speech, Opposition MLA and former education minister Tapan Chakraborty stood up and said that a notice seeking adjournment motion for discussion on the 10,323 termination-facing teachers was rejected by the Speaker.
He informed the assembly that the rejection of the notice was not done as per the Parliamentary procedure and discussion should be done over the 10,323 teachers.
However, the Speaker denied giving time for discussion citing that the time is for a question-answer session and it would be done later. Upon insisting on an urgent discussion by Chakraborty, the Speaker rejected the request following which all 16 CPI-M MLA came down the Well protesting against the rejection of adjournment motion.
Later, education minister Ratan Lal Nath said that he would make a statement in the House but the CPI-M legislators continued protesting in the well.
Following the continuous slogans and protest of the CPI-M leaders, the MLAs of the treasury bench too came down heavily on them as they started protesting in the Well. The watch and ward staff made a cordon between the members of the ruling and opposition MLAs.
Speaker Rebati Mohan Das adjourned the house till 2 pm,10 minutes before the scheduled time.
The 10,323 teachers were recruited in different phases till 2010 last in various posts of graduate teachers, postgraduate teachers and undergraduate teachers. Later, the case petition was filed challenging the recruitment of the teachers following which the court has terminated the jobs of all 10,323 teachers terming the process as ‘unconstitutional’.
The then state government had filed a SIL challenging the verdict of the high court, but the Supreme Court upheld the High Court’s verdict in March 2017 last.
The Opposition leader Manik Sarkar speaking with the reporters said that the government is avoiding the serious matter from being discussed in the assembly.
The adjournment motion was filed with the intention to hold a discussion but the Speaker rejected it without goings through the parliamentary procedures, Sarkar said.
The jobs of the 10,323 were canceled by the high court and the verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court but we still say that the recruitment was done in view of poverty.
“The BJP too had reserved 10% for the general category in services but nobody questioned that. The jobs of the termination-facing teachers can still be saved by reviving the 13,000 posts created during the previous government,” Sarkar added.
Speaking further, the Sarkar said that the CPI-M legislatures would not participate in the rest of the session for the day in protest against the rejection of adjournment motion.
