Protests continue after Govt refused to make public segregated list
The Statesman | 24 April 2025
The ongoing sit-in protests organised by the agitating jobless teachers of government-aided secondary and higher secondary schools in front of the Acharya Bhawan, headquarter of West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) at Salt Lake, since Monday afternoon aggravated further on Tuesday evening after they came to know that the WBSSC won’t release the list of untainted and tainted teachers in the public domain like the official website of the commission.
The protestors have been continuing their agitations in front of the Acharya Bhawan for more than 30 hours since Monday demanding the WBSSC to release the list of qualified and ineligible candidates in the panel of 2016 when the recruitment tests for the posts of assistant teachers, non-teaching group C and D were held by the commission.
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The protesters didn’t allow the WBSSC staff, including its chairman Siddhartha Majumder and policemen to get out of the Acharya Bhawan till this evening. The aggrieved protesters guarded the two gates of the commission office since Monday so that no one can get in or go out of the complex. The entire Acharya Bhawan building has virtually been in siege by the jobless teachers.
“Education minister Bratya Basu has announced that the WBSSC won’t make the list public through its official website. We demand the commission to release the list of tainted and untainted teachers in public domain otherwise the chairman and his other colleagues won’t be allowed to get out of this office,” said Chinmoy Mondal, an aggrieved teacher.
“The chairman has proposed to sit in a meeting with him to discuss our demand again. Some of us will meet him now and let’s see what he says,” Mr Mondal said around 5.30 p.m.
“We came to know that the commission will send lists of untainted teachers who are entitled to join schools and get salaries to district inspectors (DIs) across the state. We want the commissioner to clarify to us why the commission doesn’t release the lists in its official website at a time when they are sharing the same with DIs,” he added.
It’s learnt that the education department sent lists of untainted teachers to respective DIs clarifying them who will be allowed to go to schools.
They also shouted ‘go back’ slogan when Anish Sarkar, deputy commissioner of police of Bidhannagar commissionerate, reached the spot this afternoon.
“I requested them to protest peacefully but it’s not good when they prevented policemen and persons carrying food for WBSSC employees from entering into the commission office,” Mr Sarkar told reporters.
Showing solidarity with the teachers, who lost their jobs after the judgment of the Supreme Court recently and sat overnight outside the commission office braving sweltering hit and humidity doctors and citizens joined them reviving memories of the months of protests triggered by the brutal rape and murder of R G Kar Hospital doctor.
The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF), which spearheaded the R G Kar protests, also joined the siege from Monday.
Today, the medics distributed khichri among the protesting teachers who are virtually starving for the last 24 hours. Teachers were seen standing in a queue in front of a matador van to collect the meal distributed by the doctors’ front.
“Doctors stand by teachers,” said Aniket Mahato of WBJDF outside Acharya Sadan.
Residents of Salt Lake have opened their doors for the protesters squatting on the street in the April heat.
“Protesters near SSC Bhawan, reach out if you need to use washrooms or require any help” many wrote on their social media accounts.
As it had happened during the R G Kar protests, many residents reached the protest site with bottled water.
The court later allowed the teachers to resume their duties while instructing the state government to complete the recruitment process by 31 December.
The protesters demands include publishing a list clearly segregating the “tainted” from the “untainted”, and resignations of the state education minister and WBSSC.