The police on Thursday arrested a large number of agitating SC/ST and physically-handicapped teachers midway to the Naveen Niwas, the residence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
The teachers who had on Wednesday tonsured their heads to protest against the Government’s negligence and discrimination towards their demand of regularisation of job took out a massive march from Mahatma Gandhi Marg for the Naveen Niwas but were stopped by police at Master Canteen Square.
The police arrested a large number of teachers and managed to disperse the crowd.
“The Government keeps making promises and keeps breaking them. There has been no concrete action to regularise our jobs,” said a teacher.
The teachers have been agitating at the lower PMG since February 4 demanding regularisation of services after six years of employment. Their protests, however, have been falling on deaf ears.
They said only 69 teachers of Ganjam district have been regularised so far while others in rest 29 districts still wait for the same. There are nearly 7,200 SC/ST and physically-handicapped teachers working in the State.