Lake Road: Charuchandra College remained shut on Wednesday morning but opened in the evening following a prod from education minister Partha Chatterjee.

Principal Satrajit Ghosh had cited lack of safety for teachers of the institute while announcing the college would remain shut.

On Tuesday afternoon, a group of students, led by the general secretary of the Trinamul students' union, Arnab Biswas, had barged into the principal's room to protest the authorities decision to terminate the services of a security guard, hired through an agency.

"During the protest, the union leaders had rained blows on a non-teaching staff and a teacher who sought to know why they were misbehaving with the principal," a teacher said.

Biswas, however, denied he or any union member had assaulted anyone.

A college teacher said the guard had been sacked on the charge of dereliction of duty after consulting the agency through which he had been hired. "We failed to understand why the union was meddling in this affair."

The college on Lake Road has witnessed several student protests since last August.

During one such protest after the Puja, minister Chatterjee had rushed to the college to resolve the matter.

On Tuesday night, teachers of the college, led by principal Ghosh, squatted on the footpath overlooking the institute to protest the alleged assault.

Minister Chatterjee said on Wednesday the college should have alerted the education department before announcing the shutdown."I don't support keeping teachers confined in the name of protest. But I don't think it is proper of anyone to build pressure by keeping the college closed indefinitely."

Two department officials met the principal in the college and the notice was withdrawn a little after 5pm.

Some officials claimed the governing body of the college hadn't approved of the principal's decision.

Principal Ghosh couldn't be contacted, though.