Tripura CM announces monetary relief to 8,882 terminated teachers

Agartala: Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Wednesday announced a one-time financial support of Rs 35,000 each to the 8,882 ad-hoc teachers who were terminated from their jobs on Tuesday as a humanitarian gesture during these critical times.

In a video message, the chief minister said that all the 8,882 ad-hoc teachers would receive financial support of Rs 35,000 since they have lost their jobs at the moment of crisis.

“The cabinet has decided to support the teachers financially. There are about 4,375 teachers who used to receive Rs 14,078 salary, 3,761 teachers received Rs 28,995 and 746 teachers received Rs 35,594 as monthly salary. We hope the families would benefit from this financial support from the government,” Deb said.

The state government is spaying Rs 35,000 to each teacher, irrespective of whatever they were earning before being terminated on Tuesday.

“We had promised prior to the Lok Sabha elections that on humanitarian ground we will try our best to solve the problems of the 10,323 teachers while abiding by the law. We have kept our promise, we made an appeal to extend the jobs for two years,” Deb added.

A total of 10,323 teachers were recruited in different phases till 2010 in various 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’.

Of the 10,323 teachers, at least 1,439 managed to get jobs elsewhere while two teachers died.

Speaking further on the issue, the chief minister said that the state government has filed an online application with the Supreme Court to hear the matter of the 10,323 teachers.

“We have filed an online interlocutory application in the Supreme Court. We hope that the court will soon give its verdict to resolve the problem,” Deb said.

“I would like to appeal to all the 8,882 teachers’ families to maintain social distancing as appealed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We are with you and we hope that the spread of the coronavirus will remain out of Tripura,” Deb added.