Assurance comes after protesting teachers meet Education Minister; SSC will be asked to publish the list by April 21 as per CBI’s findings: govt.; protesters vow to continue agitation till jobs are restored.
West Bengal government officials on Friday assured protesting teachers whose appointments were recently invalidated by the Supreme Court that a list of ‘tainted’ and ‘untainted’ candidates will be published by April 21.
The assurance came after the protesters held a meeting with State Education Minister Bratya Basu at the State School Service Commission (SSC) office.
On Thursday, thousands of teachers who lost their jobs took out a massive rally demanding that authorities release optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets to distinguish between valid and invalid job holders.
‘Issue legal order’
After the meeting with Mr. Basu, protesting teacher Mehboob Mondal said they will only feel relieved when the Supreme Court issues a legal order reinstating them and would continue to protest till then.
“The government said it would publish the list by April 21 after legal consultation. It denied having the OMR sheets, but said the ones unearthed by the CBI can be used to publish the list,” Mr. Mehboob said.
Mr. Basu said the government has no objection to publishing the list. “We will ask the SSC to publish the list according to the CBI’s findings,” he said.
Ahead of the meeting, the protesters and Education Department officials deliberated for over an hour to determine the number of representatives allowed to meet Mr. Basu. Authorities initially proposed four attendees, but the protesters argued this was insufficient to represent the nearly 26,000 school staff who had lost their jobs. Finally, 12 representatives were permitted to attend the meeting.
A large police contingent and Rapid Action Force personnel were deployed to stop thousands of protesting teachers from reaching the SSC office. Many of the protesters had placards around their neck that read: ‘We are not criminals, we are teachers’.
During a similar protest on April 9 in front of the District Inspector of Schools office in Kolkata, the police had resorted to baton charge to disperse the agitators, inviting widespread criticism. However, some government officials accused the teachers of instigating the violence.
On Friday, Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma said: “We did not expect the teachers to attack the police. But there were outsiders present with them.”
‘Publish OMR sheets’
A protester who came from Birbhum district said, “We will continue our protests till our OMR sheets are published.”
Earlier, during proceedings in the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court, SSC officials said the OMR sheets, including their digital copies, had been destroyed.
According to a statement from Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, the Trinamool Congress government has filed a ‘clarificatory petition’ in the Supreme Court asking if ‘untainted’ candidates can be allowed to resume their services.
