Jobless ‘tainted’ teachers stopped on way top CM residence
The Statesman | 29 April 2025
Jobless ‘tainted’ teachers during their protest today were involved in a scuffle with police during their march to chief minister’s residence at Harish Chatterjee Street on Monday.
Police detained some protesters when they squatted on the road at Hazra crossing in the Kalighat area and demanded that they too be allowed to return to schools till 31 December.
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The protesting teachers, including women who have been barred from returning to schools, organised the protest March to the chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence today.
A huge police force deployed at the spot prevented them from marching towards Miss Banerjee’s residence by breaking the guardrails installed at Hazra crossing near Jatin Das Park Metro station.
They sat in front of police vehicles and scuffled with cops during which many of them fell ill.
They have been identified as ‘tainted’ because of some discrepancies in their OMR sheets in the recruitment tests organised by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) held in 2016.
They raised questions saying: “How did the SSC identify us as ‘tainted’ and stop our salary at a time when the discrepancies in OMR sheets have not yet been proved in the court? Our names must be included in the list of ‘untainted’ because we are not ‘tainted’. We are eligible.”
One jobless teacher, Soumen Samanta, said: “How did the SSC identify us as ‘tainted’ and stop our salary at a time when the discrepancies in OMR sheets have not yet been proved in the court? We demand the government must allow us to return to schools immediately. We want to meet the chief minister, otherwise someone on behalf of her should meet us to solve our crisis.”