A group of jobseekers has announced a hartal in Rangamati from 6am Thursday to 6pm Friday, alleging quota discrimination in the district council’s recruitment of primary assistant teachers. They alleged that instead of following the government’s 7 percent quota for the hill region, the council had moved to apply a 70 percent “tribal” and 30 percent “Bengali” quota formula, which they termed “unacceptable”. Rangamati Hill District Council Chairman Kajal Talukder said he had heard about the hartal call. Under the 1997 Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord, the government administers 28 departments in the region through the district councils, including the primary education department. Around 7,000 applicants are scheduled to sit the written test for primary assistant teacher recruitment on Nov 21.
