ACTA Zonal AGM held: Samar Deb President, Santanu Das Secretary of ACTA Cachar Zone

June 17: The XIVth Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Cachar Zone of Assam College Teachers’ Association (ACTA) was held at Women’s College, Silchar on Monday. However, Zonal President Sudarshan Gupta was out of station due to some emergent personal work. So in the absence of the Zonal President Sudarshan Gupta, the AGM was presided over by Vice President Khaled Azom Mazumdar.

The AGM began with hoisting of the ACTA flag by the office bearers of the Zonal Executive Committee. This was followed by the inaugural session. The inaugural session was attended by Dr. Manoj Kumar Paul, Principal of the host college, Vice President of ACTA Cachar Zone-Khaled Azom Mazumdar, Secretary-Hemanta Kumar Bora, Treasurer-Dr. Subhajit Chakraborty, Assistant Secratary-Gayotri Singha and Dr. Joyati Bhattacharjee and Central Executive Committee Member (CECM) Chandan Paul Choudhury. The observer of the meeting was Rajat Subhra Paul from Karimganj College. The AGM was also attended by Himangshu Moral-General Secretary of ACTA Central Committee and Dr. Anupam Dutta-Assistant General Secretary (Academic).

The aspect which was the talk of the day among the delegates present there was the absence of Cachar College Unit in the AGM. On condition of anonymity, a senior college teacher said, “Cachar College was one of the most vibrant units not only in Cachar Zone but in the entire state. Cachar College has produced stalwart ACTA leaders like Dr. Santosh Ranjan Chakraborty, Dr. Amalendu Chakraborty, Kabir Hussain, Ajoy Roy, Dr. A.B.Deb, Dr. Apurba Chakraborty and others, but today this unit has not turned up in the AGM. This is indeed very unfortunate for the teachers movement.” Sources revealed that the untoward situation prevailing at Cachar College on the issue of K.K. Handique Study Centre may be the cause for its teachers remaining absent from the AGM.

Another issue which came to the notice was that of MCD College, Sonai. A year ago, a retired teacher of Cachar College, Prof. Sanat Dutta was physically assaulted while he was discharging his duties of External at MCD College. It was then that an Extended Zonal Meeting of Cachar ACTA adopted a resolution that henceforth no college teacher would go as external at MCD College, Sonai. It was on this resolution that teachers from Sonai College made an uproar. Later on due to the intervention of ACTA Central Committee General Secretary that things were resolved. It was learnt that the particular resolution was modified as “No college teacher would go as external at MCD College, Sonai unless requisite security is provided to them.”

In the delegate session, Secretary of the Zone Hemanta Kumar Bora read out his report and placed the statement of accounts, which was unanimously adopted. Then was the turn of the formation of the new committee. Samar Deb of G.C College was elected unopposed as the President of the Zone. He will be replacing Sudarshan Gupta who was the Zonal President for two consecutive terms. Dr. Subhajit Chakraborty became the Vice President. Dr. Santanu Das of Women’s College was also elected unopposed as the new Secretary of the Zone. However, there were 2 nominations for the post of Central Executive Committee Member (CECM)- Chandan Paul Choudhury from G.C. College and Khaled Azom Mazumdar from MCD College, Sonai. The time for withdrawl of nomination was from 11.30 AM to 12 noon. After 12 noon when all preparations for the election was made, Khaled Azom Mazumdar suddenly declared around 2 PM that he is not going to contest. Thus, Chandan Paul Choudhury became the CECM. This will be the 2nd consecutive term of Mr Paul Choudhury as CECM. However, the posts of one Assistant Secretary and Treasurer remained vacant. It was learnt that these 2 posts will be filled up during the 1st zonal meeting.