Bruised and battered in police action, protesting teachers revive sit-in agitation

Hindustan Times

16-05-2025

Kolkata, Barely 12 hours after jobless teachers found themselves at the receiving end of alleged police excesses as retaliation to laying siege to Bikash Bhavan, the West Bengal education department headquarters in Salt Lake, the protestors were back to ground zero on Friday, raising slogans in favour of their demand for 'reinstatement of jobs with dignity'.
Many of the protestors had their heads and limbs bandaged, bearing testimony to the police baton-charge on them the previous evening.
The gates of Bikash Bhavan, which also houses the office of Education Minister Bratya Basu, were locked by the authorities. On the previous day, those locks were broken by the agitators to enter the sprawling complex, forcing government employees to remain stuck inside till late evening, a move that led to the clashes between the teachers and the police.
The agitators, teachers and non-teaching staff who claim they are 'untainted and deserving' in the murky school jobs scam, demanded that the state government take legal steps to reinstate them in the jobs they lost following a Supreme Court order last month. They also refused to write the exams for fresh recruitment, the process of which has to be completed by December by an Apex court order.
The protesting teachers, numbering over a thousand, remained in a sit-in on the city thoroughfare outside the Bikash Bhavan premises and shouted slogans, while a large posse of police personnel stood on guard.
Slogans such as "Nyajya chakri rakhbo, rajpathe thakbo " or 'Lojja lojja ' were heard. Several of those injured on Thursday also raised their voices in unison.
Sitting on a makeshift podium, Dilip Ghosh, a wounded teacher who hailed from Purba Medinipur district, was watching his colleagues protest.
Ghosh, who was taken to a hospital after sustaining serious leg and back injuries during the police action on May 13 night, insisted on coming back to the venue of protest, but he was barely able to speak.
A fellow teacher Suman Das narrated to PTI how Ghosh was cornered as police swung into action and a RAF member hit him with a baton injuring him.
"As police herded us from inside the compound to the road outside and ordered to vacate the premises within five minutes, we took him outside holding him by the arms and legs and took him to the hospital in a taxi," Das, a teacher of same district, told PTI.
Suman Biswas, another teacher with a bandaged forehead, said as he refused to leave the premises unless Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visits them and holds talks. He said he was punched by a constable who also pushed him.
"After primary treatment, I returned to the venue. We will not enter the compound this time. We cannot be bodily lifted from the road. Let them open fire this time," he said.
Donning traditional attires, a five-member group of Santhals, reached the spot pledging solidarity with the protestors and condemning the police action, as the teachers chanted: 'Bhata chai na, chakri chai .'
Personnel of RAF, police force stood in full riot gear before the main entrance of Bikash Bhavan turning the area into a fortress.
Some of the protesters approached them, asking them to understand their situation.
"Why don't you appreciate our situation? Don't you have children, elderly parents at home? Why are you behaving in this way? Please allow us to go inside. There are women, at least allow them to use the washroom in Bikash Bhavan," some of the teachers were seen telling the police personnel.
But the personnel in uniform looked on silently, those pleas falling on deaf ears.
One of them told PTI: "We are only doing our duty. We cannot do anything on our own.'