While sweets were distributed and new clothes worn on Bengali New Year, the occasion looked different for state school staff who just lost their jobs due to a Supreme Court order.

Surojit Pramanik, a non-teaching staff member at a school in Krishnanagar said, “I had taken a loan and bought a flat. We were supposed to have the house warming ceremony today, but that will not happen any longer. I don’t even know if I will be able to pay back the loan I have taken.”

The SC had annulled the appointments of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff recruited through the 2016 SSC examinations, terming the entire selection process “vitiated and tainted”.

Aparajita Panda, a teacher in a Naihati school, said a large postion of her salary used to go to her mother’s cancer treatment. “For me, the biggest question is where will I get the money to pay for the medicines?” “This New Year I was not able to give anything to my parents, wife and my five-year-old daughter. I need to keep that money for food,” said Sham Singha who worked in a North 24 Parganas school.