Mita Mukherjee
The police on Thursday midnight dispersed candidates who had written Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) in 2014 and 2017 and protesting demanding recruitment without having to appear in fresh interviews, in Salt Lake in Kolkata.
More than 700 agitating candidates were removed saying that Section 144 of CrPC had been imposed in the area where they had been protesting.
A strong police contingent led by senior police officers were seen lifting the protestors and packing them in police vehicles parked near the protest site.
The TET candidates were protesting near the office of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education claiming that they had qualified the TET in 2014 and 2017 but they were yet to be included in the merit list.
The TET 2014 candidates who were protesting for nearly 84 hours were removed around 12.45am. The 2017 candidates who were holding the indefinite sit-in demonstration from Thursday were removed around 3am.
The Calcutta High Court on Thursday heard a petition of the primary education board in which the board had said that the protest site comes under Section 144 of the CrPC and an agitation should not be allowed there.
After hearing the petition, a vacation bench of the court had said the directions under the Section 144 of the CrPC are to be complied with by the police.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier said on Thursday : “I love all those who are protesting on legitimate grounds. I don’t want any candidate to lose his or her job.”
The agitators were sitting in small groups of four to avoid police action.
Since Thursday evening, policemen with loudhailers were seen making repeated requests to the agitators for vacating the site as the agitation was blocking a road towards a nearby hospital and Sector V, one of the busiest businesses hubs and electronic complex.
The announcements, however, had no effects. The protestors kept ignoring the pleas made by the police.
The candidates are unwilling to appear in fresh interviews as they think that the recruitments made under the term of the previous board president, Manik Bhattacharya, who has been arrested in connection with teacher recruitment scam, lacked transparency.
However, several agitators alleged that they had been abused by the police and even women were not spared.
The state CPM and the BJP have come down heavily against the Trinamul Congress-ruled state government and threatened to launch a state-wide movement on Friday.
