Bhubaneswar, Nov. 23: Traffic movement in and around Master Canteen Square, one of the busiest roundabouts in the city, was disrupted for more than an hour due to a protest by contractual teachers.

Police allowed the teachers to sit on dharna on the road apparently to ensure that the rally of the BJD students' wing and the chief minister's motorcade passed smoothly.

The police did not take any action against the protesters though they knew the agitators could create problems on the route of the chief minister, who was to return to his residence after attending the students' convention.

Naveen's convoy was to pass through the state secretariat road, which is around 500 meters from Master Canteen Square.

Chaos prevailed in the area after the teachers, mostly women, sat on the road and did not let vehicles pass. Consequently, all approach roads to the area got choked. An ambulance carrying a patient was seen making it through a side road.

The situation worsened as BJD students' convention was being held barely 1km from Master Canteen Square. "The traffic at Master Canteen came to standstill during the peak hours. All the approach roads were congested making it virtually impossible to pass through the square," said Nirakar Samal, a commuter.

The police denied the allegation of letting the agitating teachers sit on dharna on the road.

"Adequate police personnel were deployed to prevent any untoward incident. We had also diverted the traffic through other roads. We will register a case against them for road blockade and causing inconvenience to the commuters," said inspector in charge of Capital police station Manas Ranjan Garanaik.

"It was a horrific experience. In recent past, the city residents have faced such problems at the round about during rallies but it never extended beyond 30 minutes. This time, it took us more than one hour to pass through," said Akshay Sahu, another commuter.

The contractual teachers, under the banner of Odisha Government High School Contract Teacher's Association, were protesting against the government's decision to cancel the appointment of 4,108 teachers.

"The government had appointed us on the basis of merit. But now it has cancelled our appointment," said secretary of the association Amaresh Panda.

On October 27 last year, the government had published advertisements for recruitment of 5,364 teachers on contractual basis. Some of the aspirants had challenged the decision before the Odisha Administrative Tribunal citing anomalies in the eligibility criteria. The tribunal in November last year had directed the school and mass education department to accept all the applications and not to publish the final list without its approval.

The applicants had moved the high court, which passed an interim stay against the order of the OAT. But the state government appointed nearly 4,000 teachers in June despite the interim stay order. This was challenged and the government on November 20 had had assured the court that the appointments would be cancelled.

School and mass education minister Debi Prasad Mishra said: "We will abide by the court order."