Tripura teachers’ protest enters 36th day, govt yet to reach out

Agartala, Jan 11 : Thousands of Tripura government school teachers, who had lost their jobs following court verdicts, are braving cold weather to carry on with their indefinite sit-in, which entered its 36th day on Monday, while the state government is yet to hold any talks with them.
The agitating teachers, who launched their sit-in in Agartala on December 7, have rejected the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government’s appeal to apply for the vacant posts in different departments for which notifications were recently issued.
Of the 10,323 retrenched government teachers, 81 of them died from various reasons including illness and three of them, including a woman, have committed suicide since Saturday.
Small kids, children and family elders of the agitating teachers occasionally took part in the agitation, spearheaded by the Joint Movement Committee (JMC).
Both Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and Education and Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath have on a number of occasions urged the agitated teachers to compete for around 9,000 vacant posts in various departments, including the Education Department, for which the state government recently issued recruitment notifications.
Accusing the previous Left Front government for the teachers’ plight, Nath told the media on Monday that the government cannot provide jobs to any one without carrying out interviews and other formalities. “The Supreme Court has relaxed the stipulated age limit for government jobs for these teachers – they should avail the opportunity,” he said.