Bhubaneswar, Nov. 26: Traffic came to a standstill at Master Canteen Square for second time in the past four days when thousands of teachers organised a sit-in at the roundabout for more than two-and-a-half hours.

The teachers, who are protesting against the government's decision to cancel the appointment of 4,108 contractual teachers, also had a scuffle with the police.

Agitators from across the state, who have come together under the aegis of Odisha Government High School Contract Teachers' Association, had planned demonstrations in front of Naveen Nivas, the residence of chief minister Naveen Patnaik and the official residence of school and mass education minister Debi Prasad Mishra. However, the police stopped them at the roundabout where many of them sat on a dharna disrupting traffic.

When the police tried to detain the agitators, there ensured a scuffle between them at Master Canteen Square. The police also created a temporary barricade at the spot with ropes to prevent the protesters from marching to Naveen Niwas. Later, the police arrested more than 300 agitators.

"Six days have passed since our appointments were cancelled but the state government has so far maintained silence on the matter. We fear losing our livelihood as most of us had left other government jobs to become teachers. We will intensify our agitation till our demands are fulfilled," said secretary of the association Amaresh Panda

A number of people suffered because of the protest. "I was supposed to board a train at 1pm and was on my way to the station when I got stuck in the traffic. I tried to reach the station through the approach roads but these too were chocked with stranded vehicles. Consequently, I walked the rest of the way and managed to reach the station just five minutes before my train left," said Arun Shashani, a commuter.

When the traffic came to a halt, the police diverted vehicles to Master Canteen Square through alternative roads. However the lack of adequate female police personnel posed a concern in handling women agitators. Later, the blockade was lifted with the intervention of senior police officials, including deputy commissioner of police Satyabrata Bhoi.

"Despite several warnings, they continued to block the road and that forced us to arrest some of the agitators. However, adequate police personnel have been deployed at Lower PMG where the teachers are demonstrating," said Bhoi.

Last year, the state government had published a advertisement for the recruitment of 5,364 teachers on a contract basis. However several aspirants moved the Odisha Administrative Tribunal (OAT) citing anomalies in the eligibility criteria. In November, the tribunal had directed the school and mass education department to accept all applications and not to publish the final list without its approval.

At the same time it had given the department the go-ahead to continue with the appointment process, forcing the applicants to move the high court, which gave an interim stay against the order of the OAT. However, despite the stay order, the state government appointed nearly 4,000 teachers in June this year on a contractual basis.

Orissa High Court has fixed December 1 as next date of hearing on the contempt petition alleging non-compliance of the stay order passed by it.