At least 100 people including 87 teachers and 17 security personnel in clashes at Tripura's Agartala

Guwahati: At least 100 people including 87 teachers and 17 security personnel in clashes in Agartala in Tripura on Wednesday. Around 223 teachers were arrested.

Security personnel dismantled the tents in which thousands of teachers of the state government were organising a sit-in protest since the last 52 days. These teachers have lost their jobs following the court's verdict.

Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Arindam Nath informed that 223 agitating teachers were arrested as they assembled outside the house of chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb.


West Tripura District magistrate and collector Shailesh Kumar Yadav has promulgated prohibitory orders 144 Cr Pc in the entire Agartala Municipal Corporation Areas banning assembly of five or more people.

Police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the teachers assembled. Police vehicles were damaged. Two cases have been filed against the teachers.

Opposition Communist Party of India-Marxist, Congress and other political parties condemned Wednesday's incident, saying that the baton charge on teachers was nothing but barbaric.

Ruling BJP has alleged that the agitation is backed by CPI-M. BJP spokesman Nabendu Bhattacharjee said, “Though the teachers have lost their jobs following the court’s verdict government is making alternative arrangements for them. Only few hundred teachers with political purpose are organizing agitations."

Former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said that on earlier occasions courts have terminated the teachers however the Left Front government had created 13,000 posts to accommodate the teachers. “BJP prior to assembly polls in 2018 Assembly polls had promised to regularise their jobs however nothing was done.”

The protesting teachers -- 10,323 recruited during the former CPIM-led government -- were retrenched after a Supreme Court order on March 31 last year following a decade-long legal battle.