Tripura to give Rs 35,000 monthly allowance to 8,882 teachers who lost jobs

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Wednesday said his government has decided to provide an allowance of Rs 35,000 per month to 8,882 teachers who lost their jobs after their recruitment process was termed faulty by the Supreme Court.

The terms of employment of these teachers were expired on Tuesday, he said.

"Of the 10,323 teachers, many of them managed to get other jobs and at present, there are 8,882 whose terms of employment were expired on March 31, 2020.

"These teachers will get the monthly allowance of Rs 35,000," Deb said.

He said the state government has filed a special leave petition before the Supreme Court, seeking permission to recruit them in non-teaching category.

The petition was filed through an e-mail amid the ongoing nationwide lockdown imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus, the chief minister said.

Deb assured them that his government will try its best to solve their problems, and the teachers will continue to get the allowance until the apex court gives its verdict.

"Yesterday was the last day of their job but the state govt had filed a petition before the Supreme Court through an email for providing appointments to 8,882 ad-hoc teachers in permanent non-teaching posts.

"We hope that the apex court will soon pronounce its verdict to resolve the problem of the ad-hoc teachers," Deb said.

A total of 10,323 undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate teachers were appointed in different phases since 2010. The recruitment process was challenged in the Tripura High Court which terminated their services, saying that the recruitment was faulty.

The then Left Front government moved the Supreme Court against the order but it upheld the high court verdict in March 2017.

The teachers were pronounced to retire after December 31, 2017 as per the apex court verdict, after which they were inducted on ad-hoc basis.

After the BJP-IPFT government came to power in March 2018, it again appealed to the Supreme Court, and the court granted them one-time final extension till March 31, 2020.

State education minister Ratan Lal Nath said the apex court made it clear that they cannot be recruited in posts of teachers, so the state government made a plea to the apex court to recruit them in non-teaching and non-technical posts.