Agartala: More than 50 aspirants protesting for teaching jobs as graduate teachers suffered injuries when police and security personnel resorted to lathi charge on the “peaceful” protests in front of the residence of Tripura Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath on Monday.
The incident soon embroiled into a political warfare as opposition parties hit out at the government over “police brutality on the protestors seeking what they deserve”.
One of the protesters and a vocal voice for the aspirants, Biplab Bhowmik said, “We have gathered in front of the residence of Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath to meet him. In our previous meeting, he had informed us that our demands will be taken care of and very soon the files related to our recruitment will be processed.
But, we were surprised to see that the minister left his residence without speaking to us. Later, police, TSR and CRPF troops charged lathis on all the protestors even though our protests were peaceful.”
Over 50 job aspirants were reportedly injured in the melee, of which three persons had to be hospitalized. “Two of our protestors received critical injuries on their hands. Another protestor’s leg was fractured. Even a pregnant woman was beaten up by male police officials. We have been treated like terrorists, not teachers,” claimed Bhowmik.
Meanwhile, CPIM, Congress and Trinamool Congress leaders rushed to the IGM Hospital in Agartala, where the protestors were admitted. S
Speaking on the issue, CPIM state secretary Jitendra Chowdhury said, “This government deserves to be called the most barbaric and inhuman government. For the last five years, this government has been harassing the youth of the state in various ways. I call upon STGT aspirants to raise their voice through organized democratic movement and we shall stand beside these protestors.”
“Every day we see youth of our state, who have qualified in different selection tests for the jobs, are running pillar to post for jobs. The ministers tend to avoid meeting the job aspirants when they turn up in front of their residence, while at press conferences they say there is a shortage of eligible candidates for different government departments.”
Trinamool Congress in-charge Rajib Banerjee also condemned the police crackdown on the aspiring teachers and said, “This is an example of the good governance that the BJP boasts about. Such torture on people is what BJP does.”
Former MLA and Congress leader Asish Kumar Saha, said, “It is very unfortunate to see blood of our youth spilled on the streets just for seeking jobs. They have followed the procedure, competed in exams for jobs and now they are being treated like criminals. This explains the BJP’s attitude towards the educated job seekers.”
STGT: Why are they protesting?
STGT stands for Selection Test for Graduate Teachers. Unlike Teachers Eligibility Test (TET), which is conducted every year, STGT exams are conducted for sanctioned posts.
“In TET, a loop of aspiring teachers is created. For example, if 500 people qualify the TET, they can be absorbed in the department in phases but for STGT things are different. If we have 500 sanctioned posts and exams are conducted for these posts all of them would be given appointments based on the merit list. The person who secures the rank of 501 can’t be judged eligible even if he or she scores more than the qualifying minimum marks. This is the system,” a senior official of the education department explained for EastMojo.
On being asked why the aspirants are holding repeated protests, he said, “The results of the STGT exams could not be published yet because petitions had been filed in the High Court against the exams. Two petitions are pending in the High Court that are related to the backlog of ST teachers.”
The official said the education department cannot publish the results as the High Court has issued a stay on the same. According to the official, the aspirants are protesting on the basis of self-evaluation results.
“Answer keys were released shortly after the exams. The candidates evaluated their results themselves and based on that they want jobs, which is legally impossible.”
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