Agartala: A 46-year-old youth belongs to 10,323 retrenched teachers was rescued from Agartala Railway station yesterday and police escorted him to back home after counselling, as he was claimed to be looking for a customer to sell out one of his kidney due to extreme poverty.
The incident once again embarrassed Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb who had repeatedly assured the jobless teachers of offering alternative livelihood. However, for over a year they were running pillar to post for some work and in the meantime as many as 98 retrenched teachers have died of poverty after being terminated finally in March last year.
According to report, a jobless undergraduate teacher of Kakrabon in Gomati district identified as Liton Dey had made a social media post proclaiming to sell one of his kidneys to maintain his family for some time. Before it went to the notice of the public Liton moved out of the home. Meantime, the local people raised an alarm to the post and later he was found at the railway station here.
Liton told media that he has no source of earning, even as a driver, mason or day labourer in the currently raging Covid pandemic. He has ailing parents besides, wife and two children.
He stated, "In spite of frantic search I have not been able to manage the job to feed my family. I can not look in the eyes of my wife and children. The only alternative I have now is to sell my kidney that may give me some money to keep the family alive for some time”.
Liton alleged that they had lost their jobs because of the absolute incompetence and callousness of the officers of the previous left front government and rank betrayal and treachery of the incumbent BJP-IPFT government led by Biplab Kumar Deb. Before the last assembly election, BJP had made a commitment to ensure some jobs for them and later Chief Minister and Education Minister repeatedly assured the retrenched teachers of alternatives but did nothing, Liton underlined.
The government has also backed out of a commitment given in the Supreme Court that the retrenched teachers would be accommodated in Grade III and IV posts' without any competition. After the apex court had cleared the matter, the state government has shifted its stand and announced that the retrenched teachers have also to compete with the freshers for grabbing jobs and now taking the plea of Coronavirus the entire process has been cancelled.