Kolkata:
Hundreds Bengal of teachers, who lost jobs over a Supreme Court order on “tainted” selection process in the state, held a protest in Kolkata today, during which they clashed with the police. The police had put up barricades, which the protesters tried to break and enter Bikash Bhavan in Salt Lake. The building houses several key departments of the state government, including Education.
The protesters, who were shouting slogans outside the building since noon, are refusing to disperse. They want Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to come and personally reassure them that they will not have to sit for recruitment tests again.
“We will not sit for a fresh exam. Our demand is clear – our jobs must be restored. We will not leave until the Chief Minister herself speaks to us,” said one of the protestors.
Later, some of the protesters dismantled the barricades and broke the main gates of the building. The police tried to push them back, leading to a retaliation.
On April 7, the Supreme Court had ordered the sacking of 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff recruited by the teachers and non-teaching staff under the West Bengal School Service Commission recruited by the state in 2016, saying the entire process was riddled with irregularities.
“In our opinion, this is a case wherein the entire selection process has been vitiated and tainted beyond resolution. Manipulations and frauds on a large scale, coupled with the attempted cover-up, have dented the selection process beyond repair and partial redemption. The credibility and legitimacy of the selection are denuded,” the court had said.
But later, considering the plight of students, the court had granted relief to ‘untainted’ teachers — those whose names were not linked to any irregularity during the investigation. This relief applies only to those teaching students of classes 9, 10, 11 and 12.
Many schools across the state had lost several teachers at one go following the top court’s order and the state government and the School Services Commission had approached the courts for relief.