The protesters lie on the ground in Siliguri on Sunday as police try to disperse them. (Kundan Yolmo)

Siliguri, Feb. 7: Thirty-six people were detained today minutes before they were to disrupt a primary school recruitment test.

Around 11am, about 100 people led by Trinamul Congress leader Ranjan Silsharma, who had become infamous for spitting betel nut juice on a district inspector of schools last year, gathered at Baghajatin Park, alleging that the Siliguri Primary School Council had not issued admit cards to all who had applied for the 541 vacancies for the posts.

The protesters marched towards Netaji Boys’ High School, a venue of the test, but police stopped them at Hati More, half-a-kilometre ahead. The protesters tried to resist the law enforcers and a scuffle began. After a while, 36 of them were picked up and taken to Siliguri police station. They were released three hours later. The rest were chased away.

Silsharma said: “The employment exchange had notified all candidates who had applied for the vacancies to collect admit cards from the council. But the council authorities issued admit cards to only top five students per vacancy.”

“We have nothing against the candidates appearing in the test but the council has not followed the high court verdict, which instructed all, except those who had passed out from the primary teachers training institutes (PTTI), be allowed to appear in the test,” he added.

The other five exam centres were Siliguri College, Hakimpara Balika Vidyapith, Netaji Girl’s High School, Barodakanta Vidyapith and Siliguri Girls’ High School.

According to sources in the council, the advertisement asking for application to fill up the vacancies appeared in 2006 but Calcutta High Court stayed the process as some candidates who had passed out from PTTIs not recognised by the National Council for Teachers’ Education were among the applicants.

On September 23 last year, the high court instructed the council to start the process on the basis of the recruitment policy of 2001. According to the policy, the candidates recommended by the exchange should submit their bio-data to the council. The council, after verifying them, would issue admit cards to top five candidates for each vacancy, the sources said.

The council had sought police protection since protesters who had been demonstrating in the office for the past few days had threatened to disrupt the exam today.

“Around 2,100 candidates sat for the exam in six centres which went off peacefully. The norm allows us to select top five candidates on merit basis for each post and we followed it strictly. The allegations are baseless,” Bhowmik said.