The jobless teachers and education workers spent Monday night outside the office of the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) in Kolkata after no list separating tainted from untainted candidates was released. The demonstrators have gheraoed the office, forcing SSC officials, including Chairman Siddhartha Majumdar, to remain in the office.
Late in the night, the chairman issued a press statement saying that the Commission will comply with the directives of the Supreme Court. “The department has also informed that the salaries of those who were employed as teachers will be distributed according to the current system,” he said.
However, hundreds of affected teachers and non-teaching staff, whose jobs were terminated after the Supreme Court scrapped the entire 2016 SSC panel, were left dissatisfied. Accusing the SSC of deception and broken promises, they reiterated their demand for a detailed list separating qualified and tainted candidates, along with the publication of mirror images of all OMR sheets from the 2016 selection process.
Education Minister Bratya Basu, who had earlier assured that the list would be made public by April 21 following due legal procedures, addressed the media as well. “This protest holds no meaning. Many of those protesting outside the SSC office might be ineligible. Without any guidelines from the Supreme Court regarding them, we cannot act,” he said.
The minister also added that the state would be filing a review petition at the Supreme Court soon and appealed the protesters to have faith in the process. He added, “It is the honourable Supreme Court that will provide us with directions.”
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Protesters’ representatives, who met with SSC officials for several hours on Monday, later said the commission was seeking legal advice and exploring an alternative method of releasing the list, one that they did not accept.
Earlier reports suggested that SSC might publish the list only for candidates up to the third round of counselling, sparking anger and clashes between protesters and police outside the commission office. However, the representatives clarified that counselling was not discussed during the meeting.
As the standoff continues, the protest has entered a tense stalemate, with demonstrators declaring that “no one goes in, no one comes out” until their demands are met. Some have also begun hunger strike on Tuesday.
