Tripura polls: Reappointment of court-sacked 10,323 teachers becomes key issue

With 152 teachers dead from among the 10,323 sacked teachers due to numerous causes, the reappointment of these government teachers, who had lost their jobs following court verdicts, has become a key issue ahead of the February 16 elections to the Tripura Assembly.

A spokesman of the agitating teachers, Piyali Chowdhury said that so far 152 teachers from among the 10,323 sacked teachers died due to various reasons, including suicide, poverty driven disease, mental anxiety, frustration and trauma.

During the ongoing election campaign, the opposition parties including CPI(M), Congress and Trinamool Congress and the ruling BJP accused each other for the distress of these teachers.

The Tripura High Court had in 2011 and 2014 terminated the services of 10,323 teachers, saying the selection criteria had "discrepancies", and subsequently, the Supreme Court upheld the HC's decision on March 29, 2017

After separate appeals by the previous Left and the incumbent BJP governments, the Supreme Court, however, had extended their services up to March 2020.

"Since April 2020, we are agitating and demanding the reinstatement of our services. The BJP government, including former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has on a number of occasions promised to return our jobs, but they failed to implement their commitments," Chowdhury told IANS.

All the opposition parties, including the CPI(M) assured to reinstate the teachers' jobs if they came to power in the elections.

The BJP government recently constituted a three-member committee headed by Justice A.B. Paul, a retired judge of the Tripura High Court, on the teachers' matter.

Justice Paul in his recommendations, submitted last month, clearly stated that the government could reinstate the teachers with a simple notification.

"The petitions earlier filed before the Tripura High Court challenged the recruitment of 462 teachers, so rest of the 9,861 teachers have been sacked from services illegally. They are very much in service. The government can resolve their problems immediately," Justice Paul pointed out.



Former Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, who is now the opposition leader, said that after the Tripura High Court and the Supreme Court had terminated the jobs of 10,323 government teachers, the then Left Front government had created 13,000 posts to accommodate these teachers alternatively.

"The BJP leaders before the 2018 Assembly polls had promised to regularise their jobs if they came to power, but nothing has been done by them for these teachers," Sarkar told IANS.



Education and Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath and former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb have on a number of occasions requested the agitating teachers to compete for around 9,000 vacant posts in various departments, including the Education Department, for which the state government issued recruitment notifications.

BJP Spokesman Nabendu Bhattacharjee said that due to the previous Left Front government's faulty recruitment policies, the teachers lost their jobs.

The agitating teachers from undergraduate to postgraduate level had earlier rejected the BJP-led government's appeal to apply afresh for the vacant posts in different departments for which separate notifications were issued last year.

The leaders of the Joint Movement Committee, which is spearheading the stir since 2020, said that the government has not issued any termination letters to the 10,323 retrenched teachers and there is no justification to apply for the jobs afresh.

The Tripura government had earlier given a lump-sum financial aid of Rs 35,000 each to the government school teachers, who along with their family members have been agitating, and often clash with the police.

The most influential tribal based party Tipra Motha Party (TMP) headed by former royal scion Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman is also fighting a legal battle in favour of the sacked teachers.

Deb Barman held several meetings with former Union Minister and renowned lawyer Kapil Sibal in New Delhi who is representing the 10,323 teachers in the Supreme Court.

The TMP chief said : "Sibal ji would be representing the sacked teachers in the Supreme Court and is confident of getting the teachers justice."

"I will fight for the restoration of jobs of the sacked teachers. This is my firm commitment," Deb Barman told IANS.