AGARTALA: Two years of waiting for teaching posts culminated in a street battle on Tuesday as hundreds of 2024 TET-qualified job seekers faced police water cannons and forceful detention during a mass demonstration outside Shiksha Bhavan in Agartala.
Police deployed riot control vehicles to break up the unauthorized road blockade after candidates demanded the immediate publication of their merit lists.
The situation escalated rapidly, with protesters alleging brutal treatment during the crackdown. Multiple demonstrators accused West Tripura Police Station Officer-in-Charge Sanjit Sen of physically assaulting a protester by grabbing him by the neck.
Speaking from inside a police vehicle, one detained candidate detailed the chaos. “Women were thrown into the drains by water cannons. Two female teachers fell under a bike,” he said.
He alleged that police dragged them into vans and threatened to ruin their careers with FIRs. “We just came peacefully to ask the education department why we are not being recruited, and this is how we are treated,” the candidate added.
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Sub-divisional Police Officer Panna Lal Sen defended the police action. “We received intelligence that they were contemplating a sudden movement targeting a vital installation,” Sen said.
Sen further emphasized that an Executive Magistrate ordered the arrests after the crowd blocked traffic and ignored lawful commands. “To cool them down, a water cannon was used on the orders of the executive magistrate,” Sen added. He dismissed injury claims, stating that the water cannon was deployed strictly to pacify the tension.
Meanwhile, Teachers’ Recruitment Board Tripura Chairman Pratyush Ranjan Deb denied intentionally stalling the appointments. He explained that a High Court directive regarding a disputed answer key forces the board to recalculate results for 2,929 candidates.
“There is no provision to give additional marks in an OMR-based examination,” Deb stated, citing the legal complexities delaying the final merit list.
