East Madnipur:Teachers and theatre artists in West Bengal have started to return the honours given by the state government in protest against the RG Kar incident. The name of BJP MLA from South Contai Arup Kumar Das has now been included in this list. He has announced to return the Shiksha Ratna Award given by the state government.

Arup received this award in 2011 as the headmaster of Contai High School in East Medinipur district. He retired from service in 2017. In the year 2021, he joined the BJP and contested in the election and won and became an MLA. He announced that he would return his award at the Teachers' Day celebration in Contai on Thursday.

Arup said, "I will return this award given by the government in protest against the RG Kar incident. I have chosen Teachers' Day as the day to announce it."

Notably, retired teacher Parimal De of Alipurduar had recently announced to return 'Bangaratan' in protest against the role of the state government in the RG Kar case.

Playwright Chandan Sen has announced to return the 'Deenbandhu Mitra Award', the highest honor in the field of theater in the state.

Director Biplab Banerjee has announced to reject the Best Director Award given by the Natya Academy, saying that he does not accept 'blind loyalty'.

In fact, in the last phase of the Left government, Nandigram had witnessed incidents of leaving government committees and returning awards on various charges of 'violence', 'police terror'. After the RG Kar incident, the same trend is being seen once again in the state.