Kolkata, May 15 (PTI) The area surrounding Bikash Bhavan, the headquarters of the West Bengal Education Department in Salt Lake, transformed into a conflict zone Thursday evening as violent clashes erupted between protesting school teachers and police.
Witnesses reported that numerous teachers, including several women, were injured due to the prolonged police action, which lasted over an hour.
Some protestors were observed bleeding from different body parts, including their heads.
The protesting teachers had lost their jobs following a court order last month that annulled thousands of appointments in government-aided schools due to irregularities in the recruitment process.
They began a sit-in demonstration in front of the education department headquarters that afternoon, demanding reinstatement.
Mehboob Mondal, one of the protestors, claimed that five individuals were critically injured and around 100 suffered minor injuries.
He stated they would continue blockades in front of Bikash Bhavan starting Friday and urged civil society to protest statewide against the "police high-handedness on the architects of the future generation."
"Our demand is clear — our jobs must be restored.
We will not leave until the Chief Minister herself speaks to us," Mondal asserted.
Before police took action, Mondal declared, "Even if police rain bullets, we will not move.
This government is trying to legitimize the recruitment of 'tainted' teachers by excluding us from the review petition process.
They are not taking us into confidence."
Allegedly, police resorted to a lathi-charge to dislodge the agitators who had laid a siege around the government building.
A number of police personnel also sustained injuries in the clashes, requiring evacuation by colleagues.
Tensions reached a peak around 8 PM when additional police forces arrived, attempting to disperse the demonstrators using batons, as per a police officer's statement.
Anish Sarkar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Bidhannagar), told reporters that despite repeated pleas from police since 6 PM, the demonstrators denied safe passage to some 300 education department employees stranded inside Bikash Bhavan.
"There were many women and ailing persons among the stranded employees, requiring urgent medical attention, but the teachers insisted on continuing their protest inside the building," he explained.
Slogans like 'Go back', 'Chor Chor' (thieves), and 'Dhikkar Dhikkar' filled the air as police positioned themselves.
During the day, the protesting teachers demanded an immediate dialogue with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Three women teachers from a district school, all members of the Deserving Teachers' Rights Forum, conveyed to PTI, "Only she can resolve the situation and save our jobs."
Rabiul Islam, a teacher at Barasat Aswini High School, told PTI, "Why were we excluded from the review petition filed by the SSC in the Supreme Court?
Why are we being kept out of the discussion process regarding the upcoming petition the state plans to file in the SC?
The sole reason is this government is trying to shield tainted teachers who secured jobs through corrupt means by manipulating OMR sheets."
Amitava Kundu, a physical science teacher from Nadia, and Sanjib Khamko, a teacher of Sagar Mahamuni Kapil Vidyamandir High School, resonated his concerns.
Several protestors were forcefully removed from the building premises, dragged by their collars, and detained in police vehicles.
Scenes of the agitators engaging in physical altercations with police and hurling guardrails repetitively were visible.
A substantial police deployment, reinforced by Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel, was employed to evacuate protestors from the government building, where teachers had breached gates in the afternoon to establish a blockade.
Earlier reports indicated some protestors forced open a gate to enter Bikash Bhavan, causing disarray. "First, they take away our jobs through institutional corruption and then unleash police to shed our blood," Suman Biswas, another teacher, decried, his shirt torn from the scuffle.
Biswas had engaged in an indefinite fast outside the WBSSC headquarters from April 18-20, demanding the segregation of tainted and untainted teachers on the WBSSC website.
On the number of injured agitators, he stated, "scores, we are still counting."
One of the injured, Amitava Biswas from North 24 Parganas, was seen writhing in pain on a footpath, claiming, "A cop struck me with a stick while I stood inside Bikash Bhavan."
A police officer commented, "We used minimum force to disperse the crowd." PTI SUS PNT SMY MNB
