Ruckus is Assam Assembly, adjournment over termination of temporary polytechnic faculties

Guwahati, Mar 12 (PTI) The Assam Assembly on Wednesday witnessed an uproarious situation over the termination of contractual teachers at the government-run polytechnic institutes, leading to adjournment of the House briefly.

Immediately after the Question Hour, Leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia brought an Adjournment Motion on the issue and wanted a discussion on the matter of termination of 147 teachers, of which 64 were removed from the job recently.

Speaker Biswajit Daimary, however, rejected the discussion proposal.

A motion has already been brought by Congress MLA Diganta Barman for discussion on the topic during Zero Hour, and the notice has been accepted, the Speaker said.

"All of you can discuss this subject during the Zero Hour, brought by your party colleague. So, I rejected the adjournment motion," he told Saikia.

On this, the LoP said that these teachers had been working since 2017 and were demanding regularisation of their services.

"They protested in Guwahati last week, and suddenly they were terminated. This is wrong, and we demand a statement from the government," he added.

Independent MLA Akhil Gogoi said Assam is not a "Hitler state" and demanded reinstatement of the teachers immediately.

When the Speaker did not relent, the entire opposition comprising Congress, AIUDF, CPI(M) and Independent MLAs rushed to the Well of the House and started shouting slogans with placards in their hands.

Daimary then adjourned the House for 10 minutes.

When it resumed, the opposition kept pressing for their demand of an adjournment motion and reinstatement of the terminated faculties.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary urged the opposition to discuss the issue through Barman's Zero Hour notice.

Deputy Speaker Numal Momin, who was conducting the proceedings of the House at that moment, told the opposition to raise the issue later for a detailed discussion.

Education Minister Ranoj Pegu, while replying on a different subject, later said that the terminated teachers were appointed in 2017 as part-time faculties with a clause that they would vacate the post of permanent appointment.

"They went to the Gauhati High Court against us. Though initially, the court had stayed any action from us, recently it vacated the stay. So, they were removed from the job," he added.

Pegu further said that the government has recently conducted the first round of examination for permanent teacher appointments in polytechnic institutes, and the process for the second round is on. PTI TR SBN SBN