Kolkata, March 10 Hundreds of civil defence personnel, who are deployed for state disaster management work during calamities and in any emergency, marched towards the state secretariat, Nabanna, on Tuesday, demanding the regularisation of their services.
The police, however, stopped them on Forshore Road en route to Nabanna, picked up around 50 protesters in vehicles, and released them later, a senior officer said.
The joint platform of civil defence services gave a call for the march from Howrah station to Nabanna, demanding permanent recruitment.
"There are prohibitory orders for any gathering around Nabanna, and there was no prior intimation from their side about the proposed march from Howrah station. So, the police stopped the rally once it started," the police officer said.
On behalf of the agitators, Sushil Das said, "We are called during emergencies, and we are proud to serve the nation. However, the state has neither regularised our services nor put us under any fixed salary structure. We wanted to hand over our list of demands to the Chief Minister's Office."
He said the civil defence employees also wanted to meet West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the sit-in protest venue at Esplanade but were not granted an audience by the administration.
