Saturday, 31 May 2025
Saturday, 31 May 2025
The Kolkata Police’s central division on Friday afternoon hunted protesting school teachers, sacked following a Supreme Court order in the cash-for-jobs scam, and put them inside prison vans.
Among those arrested was Chinmay Mandal, one of the leaders of the sacked teachers. Mandal was picked up from Dharmatala area.
“Chhere din, sir. Amake chhere din (Leave me, sir. Leave me),” a protesting teacher pleaded with the cops at SN Banerjee road-Esplanade crossing, while cops dragged him by the collar.
Bags were searched, protesters pushed and caught in the heart of Kolkata on Friday afternoon.
From Friday morning, around 840 constables, 25 RAF battalions, 12 inspectors, 60 sub-inspectors armed with water cannons and teargas shells had kept the Sealdah station premises under strict watch determined to stop the protesters from reaching the state secretariat at Howrah.
The protesters, many of whom have been in a sit-in outside Salt Lake’s Bikash Bhawan for over 20 days, took the metro services to reach Sealdah from where the protest march was scheduled to start.
Many of the protesters were picked up as soon as they stepped outside the metro station and taken to the prison vans, parked on the streets.
To escape from the police net, some of the protesters had hopped on to moving trams.
After the police action at Sealdah, some of the protesters like Mandal had decided to head straight for Esplanade and start the march, but met with the same fate.
Cops dragged them out from even shopping malls near Dorina crossing at Esplanade.
“We do not trust the police and we do not want to go anywhere with them,” an injured protester was heard telling the DC (central) Indira Mukhopadhyay, when she insisted to take the injured protester to a hospital.
At Sealdah station, announcements were being made on behalf of the Kolkata Police for those assembled to disperse, since the cops had not given the nod to march till the state secretariat, where the chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s office is.
From the state secretariat, on Wednesday evening, Mamata had announced the schedule for the recruitment of teachers and non-teaching staff to replace the teachers and others who had lost their jobs.
Several of the protesters claiming to be “eligible” have been demanding that they do not want to sit for another round of examination, as has been dictated by the apex court.
Following the Supreme Court’s orders, the state government has issued fresh notification to fill up 24, 203 teaching posts vacant after the scrapping of the 2016 panel in the cash-for-jobs scam along with 20,000 new posts.
“We were looking for those who could create trouble….it is my responsibility to maintain law and order in the area under my jurisdiction,” the DC (Central) Indira Mukhopadhyay told mediapersons.
Total 132 arrested from Sealdah and Esplanade area.
