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States » EastPosted at: May 16 2025 5:15PM


Teachers' stir: Bengal cops defend lathicharge, say 'minimum force' used

Kolkata, May 16 (UNI) Additional Director General of Police (law & order) Jawed Shamim on Friday defended the police lathicharge with "minimal force" on protesting dismissed teachers to evacuate government officials and employees from Bikash Bhavan on Thursday night.
"The police used minimal force to evacuate government officers and employees, who were forced to stay inside Bikash Bhavan illegally," Shamim told media.
"You cannot damage government property and you cannot detain government officials for hours as they too are common people and have the right to go home after duty hours," Shamim said.
Bikash Bhavan is the headquarters of the state education department at New Town. It face a virtually siege from the protesting dismissed teachers, who refused to allow government officials and employees to go home after their duty was over.
The protestors gathered in front of Bikash Bhavan and suddenly broke the barricades and tried to enter the Bikash Bhavan premises.
The police tried to quell the protestors but they did not yield. Finally, the police, in a bid to evacuate the detained employees, resorted to lathicharge in which scores of people, including police personnel, were injured.
"The police used minimum force, while ensuring that those who were stuck in the building were safely evacuated," Shamim said.
At least 19 police personnel were injured and some 50 dismissed teachers, including women, were injured; one of them had a leg fractured and many had head injuries.
Meanwhile, the protestors returned on Friday and began shouting slogans demanding punitive action against those responsible for the lathicharge.
They were using cymbals to create attention of the authorities demanding reinstatement.
The teachers have been dismissed by an order of the Calcutta High Court, which was upheld by the Supreme court, cancelling the entire 2016 panel affecting some 26,000 teachers in government- aided schools. The court orders came following an alleged scam involving cash for jobs, for which the then education minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested.
The protestors demanded that the government return jobs to qualified teachers as they would not sit for any further exam. The teachers demanded that the state take up the issue of their permanent reinstatement with the apex court.
The top court has allowed the government to keep all the qualified teachers to run the schools until December 31, 2025.
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Tags: #Teachers' stir: Bengal cops defend lathicharge# say 'minimum force' used
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