After police forces brutal lathi-charge on qualified candidates of Selection Test for Graduate Teachers (STGT) under Teachers’ Recruitment Board, Tripura (TRBT) on December 12 during their demonstration in front of the  residence of Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath in Agartala demanding their early recruitment, leaders of all opposition parties strongly condemned the police action, in  which above 40 candidates including a pregnant woman suffered injuries.

On Monday hundreds of STGT qualified candidates gheraoed the residence of the Education Minister and after a brief meeting with the minister, they were told that their recruitment process has been stuck in the Finance department, which is not cleared so far.

The minister said the file on recruitment was sent from his department but the Finance department has not approved it because of a shortage of funds, said an agitated candidate.

After the Ratan Lal Nath  left his house, agitated  candidates  blockaded the  road demanding early recruitment , but after a few minutes, large number of police forces led by OC of West Agartala police station resorted to lathi-charge on them and injured above 40 candidates including women and a pregnant woman.

While, police said that they have arrested 10 agitators and had used only mild force to disperse them to clear the road.

Condemning the police brutality, opposition CPI(M) state secretary Jitendra Chowdhury along with MLA Ratan Bhowmik rushed to IGM Hospital, where all agitators were shifted for treatment.

Meanwhile, speaking with media persons Jitendra Chowdhury claimed the police action as “barbaric and inhuman”.  He said that since the formation of BJP-IPFT government, they continuously cheat unemployed youths of the state and when people raise their voice against their deprivation, the government always applied force on peaceful demonstration, which is totally undemocratic.

He also alleged that the police action was instigated by Minister Ratan Lal Nath.

Senior Congress leader Ashish Kumar Saha and Trinamool Congress (TMC) state in-charge Rajib Banerjee also visited the IGM Hospital and met all injured STGT candidates.

They also strongly condemned the police action and claimed that it was a total violation of human rights.

Later, addressing a press conference senior Congress leader and MLA Sudip Roy Barman condemning the police action claimed that without instruction from higher authorities police cannot apply force on agitators. He said that it is immoral and unfortunate that qualified candidates do not get jobs and police are let loose on them. He also asked is it the instance of BJP’s ghar ghar sushashon (good governance in every household).