Kolkata, April 12 A day after meeting the West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu, the individuals who lost their school jobs following an order of the Supreme Court last week, have intensified their protests on the streets of Kolkata, on Saturday.
On one hand, the relay hunger strike by a section of job losers in front of the office of the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) has entered the third day on Saturday.
A total of three teachers, reportedly genuine ones, are currently observing the relay hunger strike. They are Pankaj Roy, Pratap Rana and Suman Biswas.
On the other hand, another section of the losers of school jobs have started an indefinite sit-in-demonstration from Saturday morning at the base of the stature of Mahatma Gandhi near Esplanade in central Kolkata.
Both the protests have a single-point demand, which is immediate action by the West Bengal government and WBSSC to ensure the segregations of "genuine" candidates from the "tainted" ones getting school jobs paying money.
Last week, the Supreme Court’s division bench of Chief Justice of India upheld an earlier order by Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justice Debangshu Basak and Justice Rashidi last year cancelling the entire panel of 25,753 appointments made by the WBSSC on grounds of failure on part of the state government and the commission to segregate “genuine” candidates from “tainted” ones.
The decision to intensify and scatter the streets from Saturday was taken despite the state education minister on Friday night at a four-hour long meeting with a delegation of job losers assured of publishing a segregated list of the “genuine” and “tainted ‘ candidates but only as per proper legal advice.
The delegation members were also assured that all attempts would be made to publish the segregated list by April 21.
"Although based on the assurance given to us by the state education minister we have given time to the state government till April 21, we are still not assured that the jobs of the genuine candidates will be protected. So we have decided to be on the streets and our movement will continue unless our demands are fulfilled," said a protesting teacher.
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