Patna:
Police in Patna resorted to lathicharge, used water cannons and fired teargas shells to disperse around 5000 protesting teachers who attempted to enter the Bihar Assembly today.
Last night too, the police used lathicharge on some agitating teachers, which led to a strong protest by the opposition in both Houses of Bihar Legislature today. The opposition has demanded a statement from the government on the incident.
Around 2.5 lakh contractual teachers in Bihar have been protesting in their demand for the "right to equal pay for equal work"
In October, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, unhappy with regular protests by the contractual teachers, declared that their demands for parity of salary with government teachers would not be met. He has said that if their demands are met, the state government would not be left with funds for developmental work.
Last year, Mr Kumar told the teachers that his government would not fulfil their demands after they created a ruckus at his public meetings in Motihari, Madhubani, Darbhanga, Sitamarhi, Begusarai, Khagaria and Madhepura during his "Adhikar Yatra".