Kolkata, July 14 An association of “untainted” teachers in state-run schools in West Bengal who lost their jobs following a Supreme Court order in April this year cancelling 25,753 school jobs, on Monday, gave an "ultimatum" to the state government to either publish the lists segregating the “untainted” candidates from the “tainted” ones by midnight or be ready to face more protests on the streets in the coming days.
On Monday, the members of “Jogyo Shikshak-Shikshika Adhikar Mancha" (Untainted Teachers’ Rights Forum), the umbrella body spearheading the movement on this issue, organized a “march to state secretariat” rally.
However, they were stopped at a substantial distance from the state secretariat of Nabanna located at Mandirtala in Howrah district of West Bengal. Thereafter, a small delegation of the forum members was taken inside the secretariat for discussions with Chief Secretary Manoj Pant on their demands.
However, after coming out of the state secretariat after the meeting, the delegation members said the meeting was inconclusive and the state government could not give concrete assurance about the fulfilment of their demands.
“So we have decided not to go for any further meeting with the state government unless our demand for publishing the lists segregating the “untainted” candidates from the “tainted” ones is fulfilled by midnight. If our demands are not fulfilled the state government should be ready for a forceful movement on the streets in the matter,” said Chinmay Mondal, one of the delegation members.
According to him, had the segregated lists been published, we would not have faced such suffering. “Instead, the state government is going all out to protect the ‘tainted’ teachers. This is most unfortunate,” he added.
On April 3, a Supreme Court bench comprising then Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar upheld a previous order of the Calcutta High Court that annulled 25,753 school appointments made through the WBSSC.
The apex court observed that the panel had to be scrapped entirely due to the authorities' failure to distinguish between "tainted" and "untainted" candidates.
The state government and the WBSSC have since filed review petitions in the Supreme Court seeking reconsideration of the order.
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