Hundreds of teaching and non-teaching staff, dismissed after a Supreme Court judgment that cancelled over 25,000 appointments made through the 2016 SSC recruitment, gathered today outside the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office at the CGO Complex, Bidhannagar, Kolkata.
Their demand is straightforward: they want access to the OMR sheets from the examination they had taken nearly nine years ago.
The protestors, many of whom claim to be innocent and valid candidates, say this document, the mirror image of their OMR sheet, is the only proof they can use to file a Review Petition in the Supreme Court.
Over 10,000 such individuals have already written to the CBI’s Anti-Corruption Branch in West Bengal with a formal request. The email, addressed to the Superintendent of Police, reads:
“We have come to know that your organisation collected all OMR sheets from NYSA, the agency appointed by the West Bengal Central School Service Commission.
We, the petitioners in the Supreme Court litigation, have decided to file a Review Petition, for which the OMR sheet is the only necessary document.
We request you to supply the said OMR sheet to us so that we can file our petition and save our jobs and the lives of our families.”
Suman Biswas, one of the protestors who also submitted the written appeal, said that the CBI now holds the key to their future.
“At the CBI Headquarters, the valid candidates are gathering to make the same request that we already sent by mail,” he told EdexLive. “We’ve attached our admit cards and asked for our OMR mirror images. We need proof of our answers to approach the Supreme Court again. This is our only chance.”
“The government of West Bengal and the School Service Commission (SSC) have failed us. That’s why we are now demanding accountability from the CBI,” he added.
The protesters are determined, with demonstrators stating that if their demands are ignored, they will begin a hunger strike.
Many of the protestors had earlier staged a relay hunger strike outside the SSC office itself, spending nights on the pavement with banners, placards, and handwritten appeals. For them, the April 3 Supreme Court verdict was a heartbreak.
While the court upheld the Calcutta High Court’s decision to cancel the entire recruitment drive, the candidates now fear that those who were not part of any wrongdoing are being punished along with the guilty.
“We worked hard. We followed the rules. We just want a chance to prove that we’re genuine,” is the collective cry of these protesting teachers.
