A woman who makes a living by supplying spices to chop-muri shops and vendors has lodged a police complaint against a group of protesting job aspirants alleging that they had demeaned the profession of thousands of people who earn their living by frying and selling fritters on the road.
The protesters, who have been holding demonstrations at the base of the Matangini Hazra statue in central Kolkata’s Esplanade demanding government jobs, had fried fritters in public on Wednesday to drive home the message that they would have nothing better to do than frying and selling fritters if the government did not give them jobs.
Soma Hazra Das, the complainant, gives tuition and runs a business of supplying spices to fritter and puffed rice vendors.
The 35-year-old mother of one, a resident of Howrah, said she had nothing against the job aspirants' protest.
“But who gave them the right to demean someone else’s profession? Thousands of people in this state are earning a living by frying and selling fritters. Does that mean they are illiterate and do not have anything better to do? This is a gross humiliation of all those who are involved in this trade,” she said.
A group of job aspirants, who said they had cleared the Group D staff recruitment exam in 2017 but was yet to be recruited, has been camping at the base of the statue on the Maidan for 93 days.
On Wednesday, they fried fritters and sat with packets of puffed rice, pretending to sell them.
“Our honourable chief minister had said once that one could earn by selling chop-muri. We have completed our education and even cleared the government examination. But our dreams to go to office have not materialised. Hence, through this token protest on Wednesday, we wanted to convey this to the government that now we have nothing to do other than selling fritters and puffed rice,” one of the protestors, Kingshuk Chowdhury, told The Telegraph on Friday.
Hazra Das, who lodged the complaint with Maidan police station on Friday, said she and several others involved in the business of selling puffed rice, vegetables and fritters were “hurt” by this “insult”.