Agartala, March 17 (IANS): As many as 1,000 Tripura government teachers were arrested by the police, while six others fell ill on Tuesday, during their agitation going on since Saturday demanding alternative arrangements to keep their jobs intact.
The arrested and ailing teachers are part of the 10,323 Tripura government teachers facing termination of jobs due to the Supreme Court and High Court orders.
"To prevent the spread of the COVID-19, the government has promulgated Section 144 to avert and avoid the mass gatherings of people. That's why, despite our request to withdraw their sit-in demonstrations, we were forced to arrest around 1,000 teachers," a police official said.
Leader of the agitating teachers Bimal Saha said that they have organised many agitations during the past one year and finally they launched the indefinite sit-in demonstration since Saturday, but unfortunately no government representative wanted to meet them to discuss the "most burning issue".
"Thousands of people have been gathering at the railway stations, bus stands, airports, markets, shopping malls and many other places, but the government is taking action only against our gatherings on the pretext of COVID-19," said Saha, who is the President of the All Tripura 10,323 Ad-hoc Teachers' Association.
The agitating teachers, who also gheraoed a police station in Agartala, are divided into three organisations and two of the organisations -- 'All Tripura 10,323 Ad-hoc Teachers Association' and 'Amra 10,323' (Us 10,323) have been agitating frequently.
Amra 10,323 organisation convener Dalia Das told the media that so far 50 teachers had "died or committed suicide of psychological trauma and anxiety" and the government should provide jobs to a family member of each of the deceased teachers.
Bimal Saha and other teachers told the media on Tuesday that they would intensify their agitation if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government did not take steps to protect their jobs.
They said that the BJP leaders of Tripura and outside the state before the 2018 Assembly elections promised to protect their jobs in their "Vision Document" and during their electoral campaign.
Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and Education and Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath had said that the state government in consultation with the central government and keeping in mind the Supreme Court and High Court orders has been trying to take "apt steps for the interest of these teachers".
