10,323 retrenched teachers’ blockade road for hour

On the 43rd day of the “fast unto death” programme by a section of retrenched 10,323 teachers organized road blockade programme in front of Rabindra Bhavan in Agartala for one hour demanding  restoration of their services and give one week ultimatum to the government for their reinstatement.

They started sit-in-demonstration from October 20 demanding their reinstatement in service and till Thursday, many teachers were hospitalized.

Altogether 10,323 of teachers, who lost jobs after the High Court of Tripura terminated their appointments as illegal in 2014 and termination of their ad-hoc jobs after Supreme Court verdict , the retrenched teachers are continuing their agitation hunger strike, protest rallies and march to secretariat and Raj Bhavan for past few  years, but till date they were to rehabilitate or reinstatement in service.,

Speaking with media persons on the 43rd day of their ‘fast unto death’ programme, some agitated retrenched teachers  claimed that government during a meeting with a delegation representing the retrenched teachers, had given assurance that a detailed discussion over the possibility of job restoration would be held after Lakshmi puja in the presence of heads of departments including Law secretary and  Advocate General of the state,  but  till date no such measures have been taken for their rehabilitation.

They also alleged that before beginning the hunger strike programme, the retrenched teachers had duly informed all the departments of the state to cooperate with them by providing some logistic support like toilet and drinking water facilities in their agitation venue at Orient Choumohani in Agartala. But, no such help had been given to them and even on the 43rd day of hunger strike, they were also not provided the basic facilities.

Speaking with media, retrenched teacher leader Arabinda Sharma said that with due regards they are still very much hopeful that Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha will call them and do something for their reinstatement of jobs. He said that their families are running a severe financial crisis after losing their jobs years ago and they are continuing their fast unto death programme only with moral support of hundreds of teachers, who have lost their jobs.