Kolkata, May 30 (IANS) The ‘untainted’ or ‘genuine’ teachers protesting against their job loss following a Supreme Court order last month, on Friday, threatened to go for a more aggressive demonstration in the coming days from an unconventional demonstrators wherein the participants in the protests took off their shirts.
The initial plan for the protesters was to assemble at Sealdah station in central Kolkata and then continue the unique rally up to the state secretariat of Nabanna located at Mandirtala in Kolkata.
However, a huge contingent of Kolkata police took control of Sealdah station much before the protesting teachers started assembling there and restricted the protesters within the station premises.
Some of the protesting teachers who managed to slip out of the police cordon were immediately arrested by the cops and dragged inside the police vans waiting within and outside the station premises.
However, despite having failed in their attempt to march to the state secretariat, the protesting teachers feel that they have been successful in conveying their message to the state government.
“After getting the jobs properly and after teaching with honour for so many years, we have been pushed into such uncertainty just because despite repeated queries first from Calcutta High Court and then from Supreme Court, the state government refused to publish the lists segregating the ‘untainted’ candidates from the ‘tainted’ ones. This means that the state government was keener on protecting those who got jobs paying money rather than protecting the jobs of the genuine ones. The state government has stripped us. Now it will have to give back our clothes,” said a protesting teacher.
The teachers also alleged that the police personnel on Friday had mercilessly beaten up some of the protesting members.
“We were kicked. Some of us were mercilessly dragged on the streets and then thrown brutally into the police van. But we will not stop. We will be going for a bigger stir in the coming days.
Incidentally, on Friday morning, West Bengal School Service issued notification for fresh recruitment for vacancies in state- run schools but only for the posts of teaching staff for the secondary and higher secondary sections.
On April 3 this year, the Supreme Court upheld a previous order by the Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justice Debangshu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi cancelling 25,753 school jobs in West Bengal.
The apex court also accepted the observation of the Calcutta High Court that the entire panel of 25,753 candidates had to be cancelled because of the failure of the state government and the commission to segregate the “untainted” candidates from the “tainted” ones.
The state government and West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) had already filed review petitions at the apex court on this issue.
–IANS
src/pgh