Kolkata: The para teachers who have been protesting against the ruling Trinamool Congress for not giving them a permanent post and also not increasing their salaries, on Tuesday a section of para teachers had jumped into Adi Ganga canal that flows beside the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence to protest against the government.
Due to the timely intervention of the police including the Kolkata Commissioner of police Soumen Mitra who rushed to the spot, the protesters could not enter the Chief Minister’s residence. The security has been beefed up in the area since then.
A group of para teachers has been on a sit-in protest outside Bikash Bhawan, the education minister’s office in Kolkata since last December 8.
Talking to Free Press Journal, Bhagirath Ghosh, a para teacher said that they will continue their protest till their demand is met.
“Our sit-in demonstration is almost about to enter three months. For the last two weeks we were on hunger strike as well. Though we have lifted our hunger strike, we will continue with our demonstration till the demands are fulfilled. The TMC supremo had earlier promised a host of things to us but none got fulfilled,” mentioned Bhagirath.
Notably, the Chief Minister had recently announced a three per cent annual pay hike for para teachers in the state budget, but they asserted that the raise is not enough.
Incidentally, soon after Mamata Banerjee’s announcement of recruitment and hike, the opposition parties cried foul as they claimed just because of the election the TMC supremo is giving out doles.
Meanwhile, BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy who had visited the para teachers at Bikash Bhawan on Tuesday claimed that if voted to power the BJP will fulfill all their demands.
“Not just the para teachers, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee didn’t keep any of her promises that she made before coming to power. If voted to power the BJP will uplift the status of the para teachers,” mentioned Mukul.
On February 15, Mukul Roy wrote a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah highlighting the problems of the para-teachers. Roy in his letter had mentioned that the West Bengal government ‘deliberately ignored’ the demands of the para teachers.
It is pertinent to mention that Kolkata turned into a battlefield on February 5 as the protesting para teachers clashed with the police during their march to West Bengal secretariat.