West Bengal principal secretary of school education department, Binod Kumar, met a delegation of 'untainted' teachers, who have been protesting over the loss of jobs due to the cancellation of the 2016 West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) panel.
Last week, the protesters had warned that they would launch a larger movement if Education Minister Bratya Basu did not meet them or respond satisfactorily by Monday. The teachers, who already staged a demonstration in front of his residence, had also decided to send letters to all MPs of West Bengal, requesting an all-party meeting, and pushing for the issue to be raised in Parliament.
They sent a letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and to the education minister, seeking discussion on the details included in the state’s review petition, the current status of the recruitment process as directed by the Supreme Court, and alternative options if the review petition is rejected.
On Sunday, Basu expressed his willingness to meet with the untainted teachers again if needed. He encouraged them to send a detailed letter outlining discussion topics, and assured them a representative from the state government would meet them on Monday.
Following their meeting with the secretary of the education department at Bikash Bhavan in Kolkata, the untainted teachers expressed satisfaction with the state government’s review petition against the Supreme Court verdict cancelling the entire 2016 panel.
However, they have made clear that they won’t reappear in the fresh recruitment process that the apex court has directed the state to conduct within December to fill up more 25,000 positions made vacant by its decision.
They remain firm in their demand for reinstatement without a fresh exam, claiming they are eligible. They proposed being repaneled based on the OMR (optical mark recognition) sheets recovered by the CBI. Alleging the court failed to deliver justice, they announced plans to take their protest beyond Bengal to Delhi.
Speaking to the media, Brindaban Ghosh, one of the representatives who was in the meeting, said, “We are hearing about a new notification (The Supreme Court has directed the state to issue the notification of the new recruitment process and inform it by May 31). The education secretary told us no one is above the Supreme Court.”
“But we asked how can they issue the notification before the review petition by the state is heard. We got the job based on our merit. We will not sit for another examination,” said the jobless teacher.
They expressed their disappointment over the absence of Basu, the education minister, from the meeting. The delegation also claimed that they did not get any clear answers to their queries for the secretary. The protesters have decided to send him another letter requesting a direct meeting.
