Cachar College: All college teachers of ACTA in Cachar, Karimganj & Hailakandi to wear black badge on 22 Sept

way2barak, Sept.21: As a mark of solidarity to the teachers of Cachar College, Silchar, the teacher- members of Assam College Teacher’s Association (ACTA), Cachar, Karimganj & Hailakandi Zone will wear black badges on 22 September. Infact, a group of students of Cachar College, Silchar exhibited unruly behaviour and assaulted their own teachers and journalists inside their college campus on Wednesday.

In a video statement, photo journalist Partha Seal directly accused a student named Nitish Tiwari who have manhandled him and also by force deleted the pictures captured by him. They also threatened to break his camera. A similar allegation was levelled by the teachers of Cachar College wherein they stated that this group of students used slang words and even pushed a female teacher.

Veteran ACTA member Joydeep Biswas, Associate Professor of Cachar College said, “When we went to the room of the Principal to submit our memorandum, we were surprised to find those students who later created ruckus being seated inside the Principal’s room and were served cold drinks and other food items. It was just a moment later that they raised slogans against ACTA and started to misbehave with us. They even threatened us of dire consequences once we come outside the college campus. It was evident for all of us to assume that it was the Principal, Dr Siddhartha Sankar Nath, who for his own ulterior motives instigated the students against the teachers.”

A similar statement was also made by Hemanta Kumar Bora, a teacher of Cachar College, who also happens to be the Secretary of ACTA Cachar Zone. He said, “At a time, the students became so unruly that we were indeed scared of our safety and security. All these while, the Principal was sitting cool and calm inside his chamber. It is we the teachers who compelled him to come outside and provide us safety. When we saw no cooperation from the Principal in protecting us, we became bound to inform the police.”

Meanwhile, as per decision adopted in today’s joint emergent meeting between Assam College Teacher’s Association (ACTA) Cachar College unit and Assam College Employee’s Association (ACEA) Cachar College unit, there will be ‘sit in demonstration‘ on 22 September from 10 AM to 3 PM in the college campus. Issuing a message to this effect, Secretary of ACTA Cachar College Unit requested all esteemed members to participate in the said protest whole-heartedly. It was also mentioned in the notice that those teachers engaged in examination work may also participate on rotation basis.

On Wednesday evening, ACTA Cachar Zone too intervened and issued a statement wherein they condemned the assault upon the teachers of Cachar College in strong words. ACTA President of Cachar Zone, Sri Chandan Paul Choudhury in a message urged upon the teachers of all the units in Cachar district to wear black badges on Thursday and express solidarity towards their colleagues of Cachar College.

Following this, ACTA Karimganj- Hailakandi Zone too took a similar decision. The President and Secretary of Karimganj – Hailakandi Zone in a mesage stated, “In solidarity with ACTA Unit of Cachar College and Cachar Zone of ACTA, the Karimganj- Hailakandi Zone will observe black day tomorrow i.e. on 22-09-2022 (Thursday) by wearing black badges as a mark of protest against the hooliganism exhibited by a group of the students of Cachar College towards the members of ACTA Unit of Cachar College. We cordially request the President / Secretary of different units to Karimganj-Hailakandi Zone of ACTA to extend their cooperation in this respect.”

Sudarshan Gupta, Central Executive Committee (CEC) Member of ACTA Cachar Zone in a video message strongly condemned the act of the students being allegedly instigated by the Principal and requested all ACTA members to wear black badges on 22 September. He also brought the matter to the notice of the Himangshu Maral, President of ACTA Central Committee. Acting immediately, ACTA President directed the General Secretary Dr Jayanta Baruh to convene an emergent CEC Meeting.

In response, Dr Jayanta Baruah, General Secretary of ACTA stated, “An urgent online CEC meeting is scheduled to be held tomorrow (22 September) at 7pm to discuss the future course of action of the incident that took place in Cachar College today. All the CEC members are requested to join the meeting. Link of the meeting will be given later on.”