“It is a long path we have to fight and travel, but we will not give up,” said Kiron Debnath, a protesting teacher who was lathi-charged by the Bengal Police outside the state School Education Department headquarters in Salt Lake on Thursday.
Debnath like many other sacked teachers – identified as “not specifically tainted” and allowed to return to schools until December 31 – was staging a sit-in outside Bikash Bhawan since Wednesday afternoon protesting against the School Education Department and the School Service Commission (SSC) for filing a review petition in the Supreme Court allegedly without consulting them.
In April, the Supreme Court upheld a Calcutta High Court decision to sack over 25,000 teaching and non-teaching staff recruited by the SSC in 2016 in connection with the jobs-for-cash scam. Later, the top court allowed sacked but ‘untainted’ teachers to continue in their posts till December 31 and ordered the state government to complete a fresh recruitment process.
Some of the teachers who were ‘assaulted’ have returned to the protest site outside Bikash Bhawan on Saturday. One of them told The Indian Express, “Either we will go back home with our jobs with dignity or else let our bodies go back, the administration has to decide.”
Dulal Murmu, a teacher from a school in Jhargram, was seen sitting with a bandage on his right leg. Asked about Thursday’s police action, he said, “In front of my eyes, they (the police) lathi-charged and were hitting women teachers and pulling them by the hair. I tried to guard the women teachers, which is when I got hit by the police baton. They then kicked me with their boots. I did not realise the injury at first, but when I tried to get up, I could not. I was rushed to Bidhannagar hospital, and there I was given two injections. I was told to go home and rest, but I will not. I have again joined the sit-in demonstration.”
Murmu said he will participate in the agitation as long as they don’t get back their permanent jobs.
Krishna Gopal Das, a geography teacher in Nadia’s Krishnanagar, said the police hit his left wrist and waist. “This attack on us will make us stronger,” he added.
Rajat Haldar, a Physical Science teacher who got injured in his left eye during the police action, said, “Due to the injury in my left eye, there is water retention in my left retina. Doctors are saying that I will need 8-10 weeks to recover. I also got three stitches. I have already lost my job, now I am fighting to save my eyesight.”
Recounting the events of Thursday evening, he said, “The police had already lathi-charged and dispersed the crowd, and employees working at Bikash Bhawan were leaving. We were sitting on a nearby pavement when two men in plain clothes with fibre sticks in hand started hitting us. I was hit on the face with the fibre stick. I blacked out and could not see anything in my left eye. I was rushed to Bidhannagar sub divisional hospital and from there to Calcutta Medical College. I wish I could go back to the protest site. I will join the protest again when my eyes are a bit better.”
While protesting teachers faced the brunt of the police lathi-charge, employees and visitors at Bikash Bhawan were also left shaken by Thursday’s events.
Shikha Mukherjee, a contractual worker at Bikash Bhawan, said, “I report to work by 8.30 am. Suddenly, I heard we would not be allowed to go home. I usually leave by 4 pm. My husband is a security guard. I cook his tiffin before he leaves, and I also have an ailing father-in-law at home. I had pleaded with the protesting teachers to let me go, but all my pleas fell on deaf ears.”
Anita Debnath, who visited Bikash Bhawan on Thursday for some personal work and got stuck for hours, said, “My husband is in Bengaluru, and I have 4-year-old twins whom I left at home with their nanny. I had to reach home by 5 pm so that the nanny could leave. On that day, I got stuck till 9.30 pm. I was very worried, and the nanny left after waiting for an hour. I had to call a neighbour and request them to take care of the twins.”