PTI, May 15, 2025, Kolkata : The area around Bikash Bhavan, the headquarters of the West Bengal Education Department in Salt Lake, turned into a virtual battlefield on Thursday evening after a series of violent clashes broke out between protesting school teachers and police.
Police allegedly resorted to lathi-charge to remove the agitators, who laid siege before the government building.
Many teachers, both men and women, were injured following the police action, which persisted for over an hour and in repeated phases, with some protestors seen bleeding from various body parts including from their heads. A number of police personnel were also injured in the violence and some of them had to be carried out of the area by their colleagues.
The teachers, who lost their jobs following a court order last month that cancelled thousands of appointments in government-aided schools due to irregularities in the recruitment process, had been staging a sit-in demonstration since afternoon, demanding reinstatement.
Tensions escalated around 8 pm when additional police forces were deployed, and an attempt was made to disperse the demonstrators using lathi-charge, a police officer said.
The police action reportedly followed after a few hundred education department employees, who remained stuck inside the Bikash Bhavan premises in the wake of the on-going agitation, failed to get past the protestors.
Teachers alleged they were dragged away despite peacefully staging the protest, with some lying down on the road to resist eviction.
Several protestors were seen getting dragged by their collars from inside the building premises and shoved into police vehicles where they were detained.
Scenes of agitators engaging in fistfights with police in groups over multiple times were also visible.
A significantly large police mobilisation, aided by Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel, used force to disperse the protestors from inside the government building whose gates the teachers had breached in the afternoon to enter in large numbers and put up a blockade.
Earlier in the day, some protestors reportedly broke open a gate and entered the premises of Bikash Bhavan, triggering chaos.
Over a hundred state government employees were stranded inside and later escorted out by police.
“We will not sit for a fresh exam. Our demand is clear — our jobs must be restored. We will not leave until the Chief Minister herself speaks to us,” said Mehbub Mondal, one of the protestors.
“First they take away our jobs by resorting to institutional corruption. Then they unleash their police force on us to spill our blood,” said another teacher whose shirt was all torn from the scuffle.
Speaking to reporters, a senior police officer said, “Police are doing their job. The higher ups will give a statement.”
“We have used minimum force to disperse the crowd,” said Mukesh, CP, Bidhannagar.
