Bhubaneswar, Feb. 23: Teachers hit the streets today again in less than a month’s gap, demanding abolition of the block grant system and provision of grant-in-aid at par with the gully aided high schools.

The agitating teachers under the banner of the Block Grant Secondary School Teachers’ and Employees’ Association also demanded provision of all facilities of Rashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyan and Sarva Siksha Abhiyan.

However, this time round, the students of Class VII, VIII and IX from various schools in Odisha joined the rally demanding ‘justice’ for their teachers. Over 3,000 teachers attended the Maha Samabesh and expressed their dissatisfaction regarding non-fulfilment of their demands.

At least 30 platoons of police were pressed into duty to avoid any untoward incident. Police arrested 100 members of the All India Democratic Students’ Organisation, who tried to break the police cordon. They were demanding pay parity for teachers of Odisha.

Rajesh Kumar Mangal, a student who had come all the way from Keonjhar, said: “We have come to support our teachers and if anybody is responsible for the problems we are facing, it is the state government and not the teachers.”

“Our schools are closed for two months. Is the government bothered about our education,” asked Manas Ranjan, another student from Jajpur.

The protest rally by the block grant teachers on November 29 had turned violent, leaving at least 42 people, including 12 policemen, injured.

The teachers had hurled stones at the cops forcing them to retaliate first with the use of water canon, then resorting to lathicharge and firing of teargas shell to disperse the agitators. The police had arrested around 50 teachers. The teachers have been on cease work since November 15, leading to the closure of all the 2,309 schools affecting more than five lakh students.