Tripura to give financial aid to 8,882 government teachers

These 8,882 school teachers are part of the 10,323 government teachers, lost their jobs due to the Supreme Court and High Court orders citing ‘discrepancies in recruitment’.

The BJP-led Tripura government to give a lump-sum financial aid of ₹35,000 to 8,882 government school teachers, who lost their jobs from Wednesday following court verdicts, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb announced.

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb. (HT file)

These 8,882 school teachers are part of the 10,323 government teachers, lost their jobs due to the Supreme Court and High Court orders citing ‘discrepancies in recruitment’.

In a locally televised address to the people, the Chief Minister said despite the state government’s financial constrain and government’s hectic activity to deal with various aspects of novel coronavirus and ongoing lockdown, the state cabinet on Wednesday decided to give a lump-sum one-time financial assistance of ₹35,000 to 8,882 government school teachers.

He said that till March 31, these 8,882 teachers are getting ₹14,078 ₹28,995 and ₹35,594 per month considering their ranks and position.

Later, Education and Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath told IANS that to give the ₹35,000 to 8,882 government school teachers the state government had to incur ₹32 crore from its exchequer.

Amidst massive agitations by these government teachers to keep their jobs, the state government recently announced to absorb the teachers in various state government departments.

Education Minister Nath said that the residual numbers of teaching personnel of 8,882 among the 10,323 Tripura government teachers would be absorbed in various departments against the vacant posts of 10,618.

“Before appointing the 8,882 teachers in non-teaching jobs of other departments, the state government has sought the permission of the Supreme Court as the apex court earlier cancelled their jobs,” he said.

Nath said the issue of the government teachers’ jobs was discussed in the cabinet on humanitarian grounds and considered the livelihood of 50,000 people, including the family members of these teachers facing termination of jobs.

“The previous Left Front government did not follow the first orders of the High Court in 2011 causing the termination of thousands of government teachers,” the minister claimed.

Opposition leader and former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar told the media that after the Tripura High Court and Supreme Court had terminated the jobs of the 10,323 government teachers in 2011, 2014 and 2017 respectively, the then Left Front government had created 13,000 posts to accommodate these teachers.

“The BJP leaders before the 2018 Assembly polls on one hand conspired against these 10,323 government teachers and filed petition before the Supreme Court and finally on the other hand promised to regularise their jobs if they come to power. But nothing fruitful has done so far for these teachers,” said Sarkar, who was Chief Minister till 2018.

After some teachers died and many other already got regular jobs through Teachers’ Eligibility Tests (TET) the number of the teachers reduced to 8,882 from the original of 10,323.

The teachers holding graduate, postgraduate and under-graduate qualifications were inducted into the state government schools in different phases from 2010 when the CPI-M-led Left Front government was in power.

The Tripura High Court in 2011 and 2014 ordered for termination of services of all 10,323 teachers, saying the selection criteria had “discrepancies”.

Thereafter, acting on a Special Leave Petitions by the then Left Front government and a section of teachers, the apex court upheld the High Court verdict on March 29, 2017. Following an appeal, the apex court extended their services up to June last year.

After coming to power in March 2018, the BJP-led government filed another appeal in the Supreme Court in June 2019, with the court granting a one-time final extension in services till March 2020.