Hundreds of unemployed school teachers and serving state government employees organised a massive rally in Howrah, expressing their desire for job reinstatement and a rise in dearness allowance (DA). Bringing out the placards and running with one replica of the West Bengal state secretariat Nabanna, the protestors moved around the streets under the banner of a collective entity of both groups, called Sangrami Joutho Manch.
Police prevented the rallyists by blocking the Foreshore road and flanking it with two giant steel barricades to bar the people from proceeding further. Ignoring the prohibitions, the protestors sat on the road claiming that they would not move out till their demands were heard by the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. They wanted the reinstatement of 26,000 teachers sacked upon the directive of the Supreme Court and their new recruitment in primary and upper-primary levels.
Ashis Khamrui, convenor of the Manch, said that the teachers had been protesting for nearly three years around the Sahid Minar area of Kolkata, and now they were determined to sit there forever. State employee Ashis Banerjee chipped in that the government was undermining DA as the Supreme Court had ordered, and officials were this time giving toe pincher of a Calcutta High Court order to check the rally. He explained that protest activities should not occur in places that can become inconvenient to citizens, such as Mangala Haat, which is something that the court simply instructed.
Senior officers in the police force demanded the protestors to end their demonstration, by indicating that it was not in any way authorized and they will be charged in court. The protestors, however, did not take this sitting as they sat on the road as police and RAF officers stood by silently. Howrah SP Praveen Tripathi clarified that the High Court did not allow the Nabanna Abhijan, and the leaders of the protestation pointed out that they had given a route which did not enter sensitive areas, such as the weekly Mangala Haat market. It was late in the day when the deadlock lasted.
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