Left student organisations hold a protest rally from Moulali to Esplanade, in Kolkata on Saturday. (Express photo by Subham Dutta) Left student organisations hold a protest rally from Moulali to Esplanade, in Kolkata on Saturday. (Express photo by Subham Dutta) Jadavpur MLA and CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty on Saturday led a team of party leaders to Islampur, where two men died of bullet injuries following a clash between police and local residents on Thursday, and met with protesters and the families of the deceased. He also accused the Trinamool Congress of “politicising the situation”. “The families of the deceased are absolutely right in saying that the police cannot wash its hands of the matter. The TMC is simply trying to politicise the matter by blaming the RSS-BJP combine. I have met with the students and it is a completely neutral political issue. There are 1,900 students in the school and only 18 teachers. There are 26 teacher vacancies in subjects like science, maths, history, Bengali — which are far more relevant subjects for them. All that the students demanded is that these posts be filled first so that they can study,” said Chakraborty. Chakraborty added that the situation did not arise all of a sudden. “The students have been making this demand for some time. When they got to know about the Sanskrit and Urdu teacher appointments, they had approached the education department and requested them to withdraw these appointments as there were no students for the subjects. But the education department has forced these appointments on them. So the students were provoked,” he said. Meanwhile in Kolkata, SFI state secretary and student leader Srijan Bhattacharya said the education sector in the state has completely disintegrated. “There are student protests in schools and colleges across the state. The students moreover are not being allowed to voice their opinion. There is no democratic space left in education institutions any longer. The TMC does not allow any opposition. Even if there was a student protest, how does this sanctify police firing or any such violent reaction?” he said, adding the collective Left students unions and bodies have demanded an unconditional resignation from state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee. The SFI also led a protest rally over the Islampur incident along with the AISF, AISB, PSU, AISA, DYFI, RYF, AIYL and AIYF from Moulali to Dharmatala in Kolkata. “We also called for a strike across the state, which has been successful. In many places where our student leaders were protesting — in North Dinajpur, North 24 Parganas, Hooghly — we have been attacked by the police,” said Bhattacharya. DYFI student leader Sayandip Mitra said education institutions across the state were suffering from a paucity of teachers. “This is one of the reasons why those who can afford it are leaving the state. Students are going in droves to other states to study. Recently, there was a huge admissions scam as well in various colleges. The youth of Bengal have no choice but to leave,” he said. The Left student bodies plan to carry out another protest rally on September 25. For all the latest Kolkata News, download Indian Express App

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