Saturday, 07 March 2026
Saturday, 07 March 2026
The peaceful demonstration led by Mamata Banerjee at the Metro channel was interrupted by 100-odd para-teachers in state-run and state-aided schools.
The para-teachers appeared suddenly in the fortified Metro channel where the chief minister with the who’s who of the Trinamool have been on a dharna against the deletion voters in the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls.
The sloganeering made Mamata upset who alleged the para-teachers were provoked by her rivals.
“Those who have come to this programme, if you can attend peacefully then stay. This is not the place for anyone to raise any demands. The only demand here is on SIR and right to vote. Don’t make any personal demands here. Don’t indulge in politics. Those indulging in politics I will request them, people are dying, this is not the time to play politics. Don’t do these things on the instigation of the BJP,” Mamata told the protestors.
“If you have come here for media attention, you could have gone to any other place. Go to Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and Vanish Kumar (The chief minister’s nickname for the chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar),” the chief minister said.
The on-duty cops pushed the protestors away from the site of the chief minister’s sit-in.
“We have been working for many years. We can no longer survive on the remunerations that we are paid. We came here so that the chief minister would listen to us,” Sujata Mandal, a protestor told news channels while being pushed along the Jawahar Lal Nehru road. “We want permanent jobs and hikes.”
The protestors were taken to a waiting police van.
The protestors said they were paid around Rs. 10,000 every month and have been working for 22 years. Para-teachers in the state are offered monthly Rs. 10,000 in lower primary schools and Rs. 13,000 in the upper-primary schools.
The protestors said they had earlier been protesting outside Bikash Bhawan, the state education department office, since February 27 but were unheard.
“In 2011, Didi had said that we will be given permanent jobs. Fifteen years have gone but the promise was not fulfilled,” said Rupan Sheikh, a para-teacher from North 24-Parganas Habra.
