Bengal teachers who lost jobs hold march demanding release of OMR sheets

Kolkata: The familiar scenes of mass agitation returned to the streets of Kolkata on Friday — echoes of the protests over the ghastly rape-murder at RG Kar Hospital — this time led by thousands of teachers and non-teaching staff who lost their jobs following a Supreme Court verdict that invalidated their appointments.

Chants of 'We want justice' shattered the sultry afternoon air, accompanied by visible outrage and frustration as demonstrators marched along the Salt Lake route.

Their march from Karunamoyee to Acharya Sadan, the office of the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC), was held in demand for the release of the 22 lakh Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets to identify the genuine candidates who appeared for the 2016 SSC exams and whose entire panel was annulled by the top court after it found the selection process "vitiated and tainted" beyond redemption.

Carrying placards demanding reinstatement, the protesters were joined by members of various civil society organisations in a show of solidarity.

"SSC should release the copies of the OMR sheets to help segregate the eligible teachers," a demonstrator said.

The commission had earlier told both the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court that it no longer has the OMR sheets or their digital copies, as they were destroyed.

Protestors squatted on the road and eagerly awaited the outcome of the crucial meeting scheduled to be held between representatives of the teachers who lost their jobs and the state education minister Bratya Basu later in the day.

"We will not leave the streets until a mutually agreeable solution is found to this impasse," another protestor said.

"This agitation will only gain momentum from here on if the state government fails to reinstate the deserving candidates who were put in the same bracket and punished with the tainted ones who gained employment by fraudulent means." A large contingent of police and RAF personnel were deployed at the SSC office to stop the agitation from spiralling out of control.

Echoing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's remarks earlier this week at a meeting of teachers who lost their jobs, Basu had announced that the Bengal government would soon move a clarification petition before the Supreme Court concerning the fate of the majority of the nearly 26,000 candidates whose appointments have been rendered null and void but against whom no malpractice has been proved.

Basu said the government would follow this up with a review petition on the top court's judgment for eligible candidates.

The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, meanwhile, has already moved a prayer for modification of the SC judgment urging the court to permit 'untainted' appointees to continue in service till the end of the ongoing academic year, or until the process of fresh appointments to such posts is concluded, whichever is earlier.

Friday's protests gained additional steam on account of police action against protesting teachers at the office of District Inspector of Schools at Kasba in South Kolkata on Wednesday where the men in uniform were seen opening lathi charge on the agitators and even showering them with blows and kicks.

Teachers claimed that the police officer accused of kicking the protestors in Kasba has now been assigned to investigate the cases registered against them.

"What can we expect from such a probe? In no civilised society does an accused investigate the victims," a protester remarked.