A group of traders, who had put up stalls during Pous Mela last year, blocked Visva-Bharati roads at three points for over seven hours on Tuesday demanding return of security money they had deposited before the fair started.

As the traders blocked the roads leading to the varsity’s central administrative building, none of the employees could come out of their offices even after they had closed for the day. Around 7pm, officiating registrar Asha Mukherjee came out of her office and started talking to the traders. However, within a few minutes, she apparently fell ill and the security personnel used force to let her car pass.

This led to a scuffle between the traders and the varsity’s security personnel. A camera person of an audio-visual media organisation was allegedly hackled.

The traders said the Visva-Bharati authorities had returned only 50 per cent of the security money to around 800 of 1,260 traders. They had declined to return the entire money despite the varsity’s assurance to release the amount after the fair was over.

“We had deposited the security amount based on an assurance that the money would be returned after the fair. But even though the fair ended in the last week of December, we are yet to get our security deposit back. Today (Tuesday) we went to submit a deputation to the public relations officer, but no one was there to talk to us. It was only then that we blocked the roads. However, in the evening, the security personnel used force to disperse us, including media personnel,” said Aminul Huda, the secretary of Kabiguru Handicrafts Unnayan Samity.

Sources said Visva-Bharati had set a condition that the security money would be refunded to those who would follow norms set by it. Recently, the varsity had decided not to refund the entire security money to the traders as they had to pay more to clean the ground and the pollution control board had slapped a penalty of Rs 10 lakh on the university.

“Most of the traders did not wind up their stalls within the stipulated time. As a result, we did not return the full security money to them. The security deposit was not returned entirely as the cost of cleaning had increased and the pollution control board penalised us,” said an official of the university.

However, the traders are not ready to accept the Visva-Bharati’s version and accused the authorities of forfeiting their security deposit.

“It is a ridiculous logic that we have to bear the cost incurred to clean the ground or pay the fine. It is not our responsibility. What is Visva-Bharati doing is not legal,” said Subrata Bhakat, the treasurer of Bolpur Byabasayee Sangh.

The officiating public relations officer Anirban Sircar is on leave and Malay Sutradhar who is discharging his duty did not take several calls till this report was filed.