West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said her government was mulling legal options to recruit those 1,806 sacked teachers, who have been labeled “tainted”, for non-teaching posts.

The state government has already initiated recruitment of nearly 24,000 “untainted” candidates of the 2016 school teacher recruitment test.

Speaking at the Shiksha Ratna programme, held on the eve of Teacher’s Day in Kolkata, the chief minister said, “Those who have been labelled as ‘tainted’ teachers have given service for 10 years. We are considering their case and taking legal opinions. As per the Supreme Court order, they may not be hired as teachers anymore. But we are considering whether they can be absorbed in Group C (non-teaching) jobs. I would like to tell them, don’t be frustrated.”

“We are sincerely considering their position because we are a government with a human perspective. We look at things not through a political prism. We don’t do politics. We always consider human interest,” the chief minister said during the event at the state-run Dhana Dhanya auditorium.

Last week, the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) released a list of 1,806 “tainted” candidates on the Supreme Court’s direction.

In April, the Supreme Court ordered the sacking of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff at state-run and state-aided schools, describing the recruitment process as “vitiated and tainted”.

However, in a subsequent order on April 17, the apex court allowed ‘untainted’ teachers to continue their services until December 31.

“There are still a total of 56,000 vacancies for teachers’ posts. Of these, advertisements have been published for 35,726 posts. Another 21,000 posts are vacant. We would like to hire. But we can’t do that because of legal complications… I will not blame the court… How many people’s futures were lost? We are already thinking of those who used to work, for those who were ‘untainted’. We have already increased the age limit for them. Our hands and feet are tied. But we are giving them a chance, so that they can return to their job by appearing for the examination,” the TMC supremo said.

Meanwhile, the chief minister claimed that during her regime, the school drop-out rate has dropped to “zero” and at the higher education level it is three per cent.

She also raised the issue of “Bengali Asmita”, saying that Bengalis showed the way during the freedom movement. “Earlier, women were forced to marry at an early age. In Bengal, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar fought against this, and it became law. Similarly, the Sati tradition was also abolished because of Bengal. These are our pride and we should not forget that.”

Taking a jibe at the BJP government at the Centre, CM Mamata Banerjee explained the reason behind holding the teachers’ day programme on the eve of the birth anniversary of Radhakrishnan, which falls on September 5. “Since there is a holiday tomorrow on account of Prophet Mohammed’s birth anniversary, we are observing the event today. I don’t know whether the Centre has declared a holiday, but we have in Bengal,” she said, without naming the BJP-led government directly.

PTI