Patna, May 6: Hundreds of school and college teachers broke security cordons at the state assembly here Tuesday, protesting against the government's policy to scrap unaided education.
Over 20 teachers were injured in the police baton-charge to bring the rowdy teachers under control and around 15 were arrested, the police said.
The teachers were demonstrating against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar scrapping the decades-old government policy to allow unaided education institutions Bihar. Nitish Kumar scrapped the policy March 31.
The demonstration started with teachers of unaided schools and colleges staging a sit-in protest near the state assembly building and shouting slogans against the government. The protest took an ugly turn when teachers tried to enter the high-security assembly premises, forcing the police to resort to baton-charge.
Members of the agitating group said over 50 teachers were injured in the police action.
"Police brutally beat up teachers and arrested them for demanding justice and their livelihood," said J.N. Singh, a teacher.
"We have arrested 15 teachers and lodged cases against them for breaking the barricade," said Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Amit Kumar.
Kumar denied reports that the protesters had entered the assembly premises.
"They reached near the gate and were dispersed by the police," he told reporters.
Though the unaided education policy was abolished, the government has formulated a scheme for providing grants to private, unaided educational institutions.
But teachers said the new policy is a "total fraud", and accused the government of "cheating" them.
