The agitation by teachers under the banner of All Odisha School College Teachers’ and Employees’ United Forum took an ugly turn as the police resorted to a lathicharge in front of the Capital High School here on Tuesday to disperse the agitators.
Tension prevailed after the police personnel tried to forcibly evict the agitating teachers, who were staging a demonstration in front of the school, where evaluation of answer sheets was carried out.
The police swooped down on the striking teachers as they tried to prevent other teachers engaged by the Government for evaluation of the High School Certificate (HSC) examination answer sheets that began across the State on the day.
Several teachers were detained by police in connection with the incident.
Earlier on the day, the agitating teachers reached the school and staged demonstration to press for fulfilment of their eight-point charter of demands. They also tried to persuade the other teachers not to join the evaluation process.
Similar demonstrations were also seen in front of several evaluation centres across the State, including Balangir and Rourkela.
School and Mass Education Minister Badri Naryan Patra said he still requests the teachers to join duties. Patra said evaluation process was carried out smoothly in almost all parts of the State, except at one or two places.
It may be mentioned here that the forum had earlier announced to boycott the evaluation process and stage protests in front of 57 centres across the State. The teachers are protesting delay on the part of the State Government to issue a notification regarding withdrawal of a compulsory affidavit clause to avail Grant-In-Aid (GIA).