Employees of West Bengal government schools react after the Supreme Court upheld the Calcutta High Court's verdict invalidating the appointment of 25,753 teachers and other staff in state-run and state-aided schools in West Bengal, in Kolkata.
Credit: PTI Photo
Kolkata: Senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday met some of the teachers whose jobs were invalidated following a Supreme Court order and promised them legal support.
The leader of the opposition, on a visit to Ranaghat in Nadia district to unveil an image of Lord Ram, alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is responsible for the situation faced by these 'untainted' qualified candidates of the 2016 recruitment test.
Over 25,000 teaching and non-teaching staff of state-run and -aided schools lost their job after the apex court found large-scale irregularities in the 2016 recruitment process and scrapped the entire panel.
The jobless people claimed that the reason behind their plight was the inability of the School Service Commission, which appointed them, to differentiate between the candidates who secured employment through fraudulent means and those who did not.
Adhikari assured the teachers that they should keep going to their schools as they are not tainted and urged them to file writ petitions individually.
"Today I met 20-25 teachers, many of them women. They are heartbroken. I told them the law is on your side. Truth is on your side. I said we will give you legal support,” the Nandigram BJP MLA said.
“The BJP thinks the exact number of tainted and untainted candidates can be arrived at. The process was muddled by this incompetent Mamata Banerjee government, but we will not let that happen, the SC did not and will not let that happen. Former High Court judge and our present MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay will not let that happen," he said.
Adhikari accused arrested TMC heavyweight and former education minister Partha Chatterjee of taking away the autonomous role of the SSC and hoisting a puppet recruitment board to "manipulate the recruitment process." Urging all deserving candidates to raise the single demand for the ouster of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, he said this was imperative for fair, transparent recruitment in the coming days and to clean up the rot.
Earlier in the evening at Ranaghat function, Adhikari said BJP will usher in Ram Rajya in West Bengal and called for widespread, overwhelming participation in Ram Navami rallies by each and every 'sanatani Hindu.' Meanwhile, black flags and posters with 'Suvendu Adhikari go back' written on them were found near the venue of the BJP leader’s programme.
He, however, refused to attach much importance to it.