Teachers' bandh in Bihar affects normalcy; 1000 arrested

The bandh called by contractual teachers in Bihar on Thursday affected normal life and hit train services, while 1000 protestors were arrested as opposition parties continued to pillory the Nitish Kumar government in both Houses of legislature for the lathi-charge on teachers.

Nearly 1000 protestors were taken into custody during the shutdown, police sources said.

Of the arrests, 300 were made in Kaimur, 100 each in Patna and Muzaffarpur, 50 in Nalanda, 30 in Nawada and 25 in Bhojpur, reports from the districts quoting the police said.

Protestors halted trains at various places in the state, staged street protests and forced closure of markets during the bandh supported by the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal, Lok Janshakti Party, CPI-ML and NCP, the reports said.

A report from Rohtas said that two persons who were not teachers were arrested for vandalism at the premises of Janata Dal-United MLA Ramdhani Singh.

East Central Railway sources said that more than 30 trains were halted at Sheikhpura, Nawada, Samastipur, Supual, Muzaffarpur, Hajipur, Darbhanga and Saharsa.

Schools and offices remained closed in Patna though traffic was normal as bandh supporters demonstrated at R-Block, about 500 metres from assembly where teachers were lathi-charged on Tuesday, and several other places.

President of the Bihar Panchayat Nagar Prarambhik Sikshak  

Sangh, Pradip Kumar Pappu claimed that the bandh was successful and that contractual teachers would continue to agitate in support of their demand and police lathicharge on them.

Pappu claimed that normal functioning in schools across the state was disrupted, which was denied by Director Primary Education Ajay Chaudhary.

Chaudhary said that action would be taken against protestors who locked schools and forcibly closed the office of district education officer.

Some sections of the government teachers association supported the shutdown as also the Bihar Secondary School Teachers Association.

Association President Shatrughan Prasad Singh and General Secretary Kedarnath Pandey said that the teachers would boycott matriculation examination duty and laboratory tests for Intermediate to protest the lathicharge on contractual teachers.

Meanwhile, a determined opposition stalled both Houses of the state legislature demanding adjournment on the demand by 2.25 lakh contractual teachers for regularisation and pay parity with regular teachers.

The opposition RJD, Congress, LJP and CPI continued to vociferously protest in the Assembly and Council demanding an adjournment motion on the matter.

Opposition members also boycotted the post-lunch session of the assembly.

Fuming at rejection of the adjournment motion by Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary in the first half, opposition members, barring a couple of independent MLAs, boycotted proceedings.

The Leader of Opposition Abdul Bari Siddiqu defended the boycott and said that opposition members were left with no option after rejection of the adjournment motion by the Speaker.

The opposition will take part in the business of the house on as usual, he said.