The sit-in protest by West Bengal’s school teachers who lost their jobs following a recent Supreme Court (SC) verdict entered its third consecutive day on Saturday, May 17, outside the State Education Department headquarters in Salt Lake, Kolkata.
The demonstrators, under the banner of the Deserving Teachers Rights Forum, include those who had cleared the 2016 School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment exam but were among the 25,753 appointments annulled by the apex court, said a report by PTI.
The court had termed the entire recruitment process "vitiated and tainted."
Chinmoy Mondal, a senior member of the forum, said they plan to seek intervention from President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“We want to present our case before them and highlight how the state has failed to distinguish between tainted and untainted candidates while making submissions to the court,” Mondal told PTI.
He also criticised the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) for not consulting the affected teachers before filing a revision petition with the Supreme Court on May 3.
“We are now exploring the legal route and may file a review petition ourselves,” he added.
According to the forum, the state's legal representation has been unable to clearly identify who among the nearly 26,000 dismissed teaching and non-teaching staff were involved in malpractice, leaving all candidates, qualified or otherwise, stripped of their jobs.
Today, Saturday, May 17, around 1,000 teachers continued their peaceful protest at Bikash Bhavan, while police maintained a watchful presence.
Meanwhile, in a symbolic gesture, around 300 schoolchildren from Classes 5 to 8 attended an open-air class conducted by the protestors. The session focused on lessons in social values and environmental awareness.
A voluntary group of former students also stepped in to support the protest, distributing nearly 2,000 plates of rice and vegetable curry among the demonstrators.
However, forum leader Brindaban Ghosh urged that all assistance be routed through the official body.
“Teachers are not asking for charity. There is a structured way to extend support,” he said.
The protesting teachers are calling on the state government to take urgent legal and administrative steps to reinstate them.
“Our movement is not political. We welcome support from all citizens and political leaders — be it from the BJP, TMC, CPIM, Congress or SUCI — but we will not allow anyone to politicise our platform,” Mondal said.
