How will she save jobs, ask aggrieved teachers after meeting CM at Netaji Indoor
Telegraph | 9 April 2025
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s address was peppered with assurances but did not cut much ice with several teachers who have lost their jobs.
They had come to Netaji Indoor Stadium hoping Mamata would explain how she planned to save their jobs. Many teachers who were present said after the meeting that they left the stadium none the wiser.
“She vowed to save our jobs. But she did not say how. There was no concrete information on that. She said she had plans A, B, C, D and E ready. What are those plans?” asked Minakshi Singh, who was a geography teacher at a secondary school on GT Road in Howrah and lost her job.
Her colleague Daraksha Sahar, who used to teach life science at the school, said: “There is a lot of talk on another recruitment test. The chief minister did not say anything about it. Think of our mental state. It is not possible for us to sit afresh for a test we already cleared almost 10 years ago. Can a veteran lawyer sit for an entrance exam in the same field?”
Mamata advised the teachers to provide “voluntary service” at the schools for two months, hoping the crisis would be resolved by then. She also promised to compensate for the loss in the period they provide voluntary service.
But several teachers said this created confusion.
“What does she mean by voluntary service? We are not civic volunteers. I have EMIs to pay. I have elderly parents to take care of,” said Sagar Mondal, who taught history at a secondary school in Habra, North 24-Parganas. He is the sole breadwinner in the family of five.
Mamata’s advice on voluntary service was met with protests by several members of the audience. Some of them got up from their seats and came forward, trying to say something to the chief minister. They were stopped by police. Mondal, who hails from Ranaghat in Nadia, was among them.
Mamata pledged to save the jobs of the deserving candidates first. Then, she said, she would look into the cases of “tainted” candidates. This did not go down well with a large section of teachers.
Representatives of the Deserving Teachers’ Rights Forum said they were disheartened. “We were disheartened by her comments on tainted candidates. What is the need to support tainted candidates?” asked Chinmoy Mandal, a spokesperson for the forum, at Shahid Minar on Monday evening.
Mehbub Mandal, another member, said the forum would organise a demonstration.
“The order scrapping the jobs came from the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The process of a review and curative petition is going to be very complex. We need to build up public opinion in our favour. To do that, we have to hit the streets. We will start a demonstration. We will do it in Esplanade,” said Mehbub.
“We also have district-specific plans. We will fix our agenda in a day or two.”
At the stadium, the scale of the teachers’ anxiety was evident multiple times. They had come only to hear Mamata. The speakers before her were greeted with disapproval.
Mamata’s speech triggered more than one round of applause. But at the end of it, many were left asking for more.
“It is good that she has vowed to stand by us. But she should walk the talk. She should file a review petition in the Supreme Court, listing the deserving candidates and appealing to the court to save their jobs,” said Shishir Sarkar, who lost his job at a school in North Dinajpur.
Sumitava Sarkar, who taught biology at a higher secondary school in East Burdwan, said: “The SSC and the CBI know who is deserving and who is not. Then why is it impossible to prepare a list? The government agencies should make the list and the court should validate it.”