Around 20 Block Grant teachers were injured, one of them breaking his leg, as police resorted to lathicharge near Sishu Bhawan Square here when the agitating teachers tried to march towards Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s residence by breaking the security cordons.
The police even searched the shops along the road near the Sishu Bhavan and arrested many protesting teachers. The Block Grant Teachers’ Association Jagatsinghpur district unit president fractured his leg during the scuffle.
Police said they were forced to resort to lathicharge after the teachers did not pay heed to their warning not to break the security cordon. It was also seen that the protesting teachers pelted stone at the police.
As the police blocked the teachers on the main road, the protesters took various lanes and by-lanes towards the Naveen Niwas, leaving the police personnel in a tizzy. Commissioner of Police YB Khurania and DCP Satyabrata Bhoi rushed to the spot and managed to bring them back to dharna site at Mahatma Gandhi Marg.
Vehicular movement on the Rajmahal-Sishu Bhawan stretch of the road came to a grinding halt due to the clash for some hours. The police finally managed to disperse the teachers’ gathering. “We have been demanding full grant-in-aid which is a genuine one. The Government has been cheating us for the last 40 days. We would rather die than back off from our agitation till our demands are met,” an agitating teacher said. The teachers’ association had earlier warned to stage agitation on February 5.
“The Chief Minister during a meeting with us in September last year had assured us to fulfil our demands, but nothing tangible has happened as yet,” said association general secretary Prashant Kumar Mohapatra.