Around 500 qualified teachers took to the streets on Thursday, demanding justice following a Supreme Court ruling which annulled the posts of around 26,000 teachers. The teachers, who belong to the ‘Jogyo Sikshak Manch’ (Eligible Teachers Forum), argued that they did not deserve to be punished along with the individuals who were “tainted.”
Group Spokesperson Mehboob Mondal stated the group’s complaints, “We have come here to plead on behalf of deserving teachers who must not be victimized due to the School Service Commission’s failure to distinguish between eligible candidates and those who landed jobs through unfair means in 2016 recruitment tests.”
The protest soon became violent after police intervened during the time teachers were attempting to submit a petition to the District Inspector of Education. Mondal reported that force was used on protesters by the police and further quoted, “We were charged with lathi for merely trying to voice our grievances. In the wake of the state government’s corruption we lost our jobs, and thus we have no other choice but to protest.”
When asked if they might join a relay hunger strike with another group of qualified teachers outside the SSC office, Mondal replied that the forum will make a decision after this protest. He emphasized that their faction is independent of another faction currently undertaking a sit-in at Sahid Minar but would be willing to offer its services to just causes from other deserving candidates.
The rallies, extending over 2 kilometers, converged at Esplanade after starting from Central Avenue and Sealdah. A large police force was deployed to monitor the rally so that the peaceful procession, marked by placards reading “We want back our job” and “SSC should clarify tainted/untainted candidates,” went off without a hitch.
On April 3, the Supreme Court upheld a 2024 Calcutta High Court judgment that held the appointment of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff appointed by the SSC in 2016 to be invalid, calling the selection process as “vitiated and tainted.”
The accused teachers attribute their plight to the SSC’s inability to differentiate between those who got jobs by unfair means and those who passed in the honest way. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have already arrested former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and certain officials engaged in the recruitment malpractices.
