The West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) on Monday evening failed to release the list of 2016 SSC qualifiers (untainted candidates) whose jobs were annulled by the Supreme Court, prompting the protesting teachers to launch an indefinite sit-in outside Acharya Sadan, the WBSSC headquarters, in Kolkata.
After a marathon meeting with a 13-member delegation of the protesting teachers ended in a deadlock Monday night, SSC chairman Siddhartha Majumdar said he would speak to lawyers before making any statement on the issue.
Sources in the SSC said that the government would obey the Supreme Court’s order of April 17 extending the services of “untainted” candidates until December 31, and directed the West Bengal government to complete fresh recruitments by then.
A senior official of the state Education Department said, “Publishing of list of eligible and ineligible candidates will create further complications. So, publishing that list is meaningless.”
Last week, state Education Minister Bratya Basu had promised to publish a list of “tainted” and “untainted candidates” by 6 pm on April 21.
In its April 3 verdict, the Supreme Court had declared the entire 2016 recruitment panel created by the SSC as null and void, citing widespread irregularities.
The ruling led to the termination of around 26,000 teaching and non-teaching staff from state-run and state-aided schools across West Bengal.
On Monday night, Basu said, “We will file a review petition very soon. They (protesting teachers) should have faith in us. Now, what they will do is their decision.”
Chinmoy Mondol, one of the leading protesting teachers, told mediapersons after coming out of the marathon meeting with the SSC chief, “They (the SSC) are playing a different game now. We are being told that only the first three rounds of counselling are valid, implying the names of teachers recruited from the fourth to eighth rounds would be on the tainted list. They said we cannot go to school and we will not get a salary. We have decided that we will hold a sit-in demonstration till a solution is provided. They are asking for two to three more days. We have decided that we will sit and protest in front of the SSC office till then,” Mondol added.
The agitating teachers also demanded the resignation of the SSC chairman and Education Minister Bratya Basu.
Demanding a compensation of Rs 2 crore, the protesting teachers said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the education minister should take responsibility.
“Let them shoot us, lathi charge us, we will not go home, and we will not allow them to go home. They are playing with our lives. We demand justice… They did the corruption. Why should we suffer?”
On hearing this, some of the protesting teachers broke down.
According to them, if this decision is taken by the SSC, then a majority of the teachers will become jobless.
Abdul Hassan, a class 11 teacher in Hooghly, told The Indian Express, “We want both the lists (tainted and untainted), and all the candidates’ mirror images (of their OMR sheets) released. Why should we suffer for someone else’s mistake?”
Surojit Das, a mathematics teacher at the Dakshin Arunnagar High School, told mediapersons, “Unless the list is published, we will not go back to work.”
Piyali Adak, a physics teacher from Krishnanagar, said, “…They have to certify those who are genuine candidates… Only then can we go for a review petition.”
The protesting teachers have decided that they will not go home and they will not allow any of the officials inside the SSC office or the chairman to go home, “ they have to give us a final answer . We have not paid any money, I have worked for 6 years now. Suddenly I don’t have a job. What will I feed my family?” said a protesting teacher.
Earlier in the day, hundreds of teaching and non-teaching staff, whose appointments were invalidated by the Supreme Court, staged a protest march to the SSC office demanding the immediate publication of the list of candidates who had qualified in the 2016 SSC recruitment test.
West Bengal Junior Doctors Front, which had been at the forefront of the movement to demand justice for the R G Kar hospital’s rape and murder victim in 2024, pledged solidarity with the protesting teachers.
By Monday night, a huge contingent of RAF personnel, armed with sticks and teargas shells was deployed near the SSC office.