Agartala, December 12, 2022: Once again, the aspirants of STGT (selection test for graduate teachers) in Tripura staged ‘peaceful’ protests in front of Education minister Ratanlal Nath’s residence here in Agartala city demanding appointment of all in one go.

However, police resorted to lathi-charge on the protestors in which many aspirants sustained grievous injuries. They were admitted to IGM Hospital here in Agartala city for treatment.

After getting the news, state leaders of main opposition CPIM, Congress and Trinamool Congress expressed their sympathy for the aspirants and displeasure over the role of police. Later in the afternoon, CPIM’s student-youth organization, SFI and DYFI organized a protest march on the streets of Agartala city.

Incidentally, the STGT job aspirants have been protesting for the last three months demanding recruitment of all in one go. They are going door to door of various ministers demanding jobs. Meanwhile, Tripura has recruited 617 STGT teachers since 2019. But, despite the vacant posts, STGT qualifiers are not being given jobs, so they have started agitation.

STGT job aspirants besieged the Education Minister’s residence on Monday. According to them, all STGT qualifiers were promised recruitment. But now the Finance department is not giving approval due to poor financial condition of Tripura. They claimed that the Education Minister had promised that they would be given jobs only after getting approval from the Finance department. But, now the recruitment is on hold due to the finance department, said an STGT job aspirant.

Their question is, if TET passers can be recruited together, where is the crime of STGT job aspirants? In protest against this, today they surrounded the residence of the Education minister. During this protest, the Education minister was stuck and later, he managed to get out of the house with the intervention of police and TSR personnel. The situation took an ugly turn when police got heated soon after and were forced to charge the protesters. In that, over 50 were injured.

Police rescued the injured and admitted them to IGM Hospital. Strict security measures have been ensured to keep the situation under control. Meanwhile, CPIM state secretary Jitendra Chowdhury, MLA Ratan Bhowmik, Congress leader and former MLA Ashish Kumar Saha and Trinamool Congress state leaders rushed to sympathize with the injured STGT job aspirants. Alleging police torture on the agitators, CPIM’s student-youth organization marched on the streets in the afternoon. Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman condemned the incident.

Tripura BJP Chief Spokesperson Subrata Chakraborty requested everyone to wait patiently. He said that it has been proved today that there is no need to hold a strike for jobs under the current government’s regime.