Jobless teachers' protest outside Bengal education dept HQ continues for 4th straight day

Kolkata: School teachers, who lost their jobs following a recent Supreme Court verdict, continued their protest for the fourth consecutive day on Sunday outside the West Bengal Education Department headquarters in Salt Lake.

Around 1,000 protesters, part of the Deserving Teachers Rights Forum, include teachers, who had cleared the 2016 West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) examination but were among the 25,753 appointments invalidated by the apex court, which termed the recruitment process "vitiated and tainted".

They raised slogans demanding reinstatement in their jobs and a meeting with state Education Minister Bratya Basu.

A woman teacher with tears rolling down her cheeks was seen checking the answer scripts of students, while several agitators were sweeping the road at the protest site.

"We will not leave this spot till Minister Bratya Basu comes here and assures us that we will not have to write the exam again. Our representation and views should be accommodated in the special review petition to be filed by the state government in the Supreme Court," Chinmoy Mondal, a representative of the forum, told PTI.

The protesting teachers are also demanding that the state government take legal and administrative measures to reinstate them in their jobs with immediate effect.

"Please wait. We will snatch win and justice from the corrupt administration," said Jolie Hazra, a science teacher at a school in South 24 Parganas district.

Some protesters also claimed that 10-12 teachers have been served notices to appear before a police station in connection with an investigation into the clashes that broke out in and around Bikash Bhavan, the state Education Department headquarters, on May 15.

The area around Bikash Bhavan turned into a virtual battlefield on Thursday evening during the violent clashes between the protesting school teachers and the police.

Many teachers, including several women, were injured in police action, which persisted for over an hour, eyewitnesses said.

Despite repeated pleas to the teachers to allow stranded employees of the education department to return home, the protesters continued their agitation, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Bidhannagar) Anish Sarkar had said.