Teachers of Vivekananda College in Alipurduar after putting up posters declaring the strike on Friday. Picture by Anirban Choudhury

Alipurduar/Raiganj, June 26: Teachers of two colleges in north Bengal, which witnessed violence and intimidation by student bodies over admission to first-year courses, have embarked on an indefinite strike, citing insecurity.

Vivekananda College in Jalpaiguri’s Alipurduar and Meghnad Saha College at Itahar in North Dinajpur are the two institutions that saw confinements of teachers during counselling yesterday. In both cases, members of the student unions turned violent and ransacked property, not allowing teachers to leave the college for hours.

In the Alipurduar college, lecturers Deepa Chaki and Shelly Das were in charge of the counselling that began at 11.30am for those taking admission to history honours. According to college sources, at 4pm when only eight candidates were left for counselling, members of the Chhatra Parishad and the Trinamul Chhatra Parishad entered the classroom and began abusing the teachers.

The secretary of the teachers’ council, Gobindo Rajbangshi, today said: “Like Tuesday, yesterday too, outsiders entered the college and threatened our teachers. This time, the students demanded that the teachers apologise for inciting them on Tuesday, an allegation that is baseless. The unions had stopped the counselling that day as well. We have decided to keep the college shut indefinitely or till we get protection.”

The teachers, including lecturer-in-charge Ratna Dey, were confined to their rooms till 10.30pm on Tuesday. “The police played the role of silent spectators. Unless our safety and security are ensured, we will not take classes,” Rajbanghshi said.

Debabrata Adhikary, the president of the Chhatra Parishad’s Alipurduar unit, alleged that yesterday the lecturer-in-charge had accused the union of causing trouble in college. “No one used bad language as had been said. We have declared an indefinite strike and informed the subdivisional officer,” Adhikary said.

R. Alice Vaz, the subdivisional officer of Alipurduar, said she had asked the teachers to withdraw the strike.

In Meghnad Saha College yesterday, members of the All-India Students Federation (AISF), the student wing of the CPI, chased away Chhatra Parishad supporters, who were protesting against the manner in which the admission lists had been drawn up.

“The Chhatra Parishad members came back around 12.30pm with outsiders and began ransacking the classrooms. We were forced to stay put in the college as they were waiting for us outside the campus till 3.30pm. The police just watched on. When we started for the police station, stones were hurled at us from a nearby club,” said Sukumar Barui, the secretary of the teachers’ council.

He said lecturers Susani Sengupta and Goutam Sarkar were injured. The principal of the college, Swapna Mukherjee, said the police had failed to maintain law and order in the college. “The Chhatra Parishad and Congress supporters openly attacked us in front of the police. Unless the culprits are arrested and our safety ensured, we have decided to cease work indefinitely,” the principal said.

The district secretary of the Chhatra Parishad, Tushar Kanti Guha, said the college had in collusion with the AISF union deliberately omitted the names of their supporters from the admission list even though they fulfilled the merit criteria.

“When we went to protest, the AISF beat us up and chased us away. Now they are trying to hush up matters by fabricating stories,” Guha said.

North Dinajpur police superintendent Sankar Singha said his force had acted impartially. “An inquiry is going on and those found guilty will be arrested,” he said.