Authorities of a Bengal government-sponsored college at Katwa have sent a proposal to the Director of Public Instruction to deduct a day’s salary of five teachers for participating in a strike against the Centre’s citizenship drives on January 8.

The five teachers at Katwa College are Anindya Banerjee, Kedar Mitra, Tupur Bannerjee, Syed Abdul Kader and Tapomoy Ghosh.

“The college authorities referred to a state government order that made attendance mandatory for teachers on the day of the strike. The principal showcaused us and we replied. After the meeting of the college governing body, the principal informed us that the five of us had lost a day of our service. He marked the day as ‘dies non’ for us,” said Anindya Banerjee, who teaches English.

Principal Nirmalendu Sarkar said: “The proposal to deduct the salary for a day was sent to the DPI after it was passed at the meeting of the governing body. Two of the five teachers are members of the body and gave their nod.”

However, the teachers said they did not pass any comment at the meeting to send the proposal to the DPI.