The teachers stage a demonstration at Master Canteen Square in Bhubaneswar on Monday. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, March 18: Police today arrested around 200 block grant teachers after they tried to break the cordon at Mahatma Gandhi Square to enter the Assembly.

There was no use of force either by the demonstrators or the police.Teachers and employees of the 1,982 block grant and 327 eligible high schools under the banner of the Block Grant Secondary School Teachers and Employees’ Association took out a rally from the railway station to Mahatma Gandhi Marg where the police arrested them.

In the morning, teachers of 110 girls’ high school gheraoed the residence of school and mass education minister Rabi Narayan Nanda, demanding full grants in aid. The crowd dispersed after the police intervened.

Yesterday, the police arrested four teachers while they were picketing outside an evaluation centre. They had picketed outside all the 74 valuation centres at various places and pursued other teachers not to conduct evaluation.

The teachers have rejected the cabinets approval of the new grants-in-aid policy and threatened to intensify agitation if their demand of abolishing the bock grant system with provision of 100 per cent grants in aid to all 1,982 block grant and 327 eligible high schools is not fulfilled.

The teachers said they were clueless about the new grants-in-aid policy as they had not been consulted about it approved by the state cabinet last week. “It is strange that the state government did not bother to involve us in such an important decision involving so many teachers,” said Prashanta Mohapatra, president of the association.

The teachers also rued that the new policy did not talk of service benefits such as the DA, pension and so on, and thus, was no different than the existing policy.

Tomorrow, the teachers will gather in Puri and take out a candle-march rally in front of the Jagannath temple in Puri.

The teachers boycotted the invigilation duty of matriculation exams and evaluation of answer sheets this year. They have been on cease work since November 15 leading to closure of all the 2,309 schools affecting more than five lakh students across the state.