Kolkata, June 2 (IANS) The “untainted” or “genuine” teachers, who lost their jobs in state-run schools following a Supreme Court order in April, on Monday wrote to several senior officials of both Kolkata and the state police, requesting that a meeting be arranged with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The senior cops who had been sent letters include the Director General of Police Rajeev Kumar, Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Verma, Additional Director General, Law & Order, Javed Shamim, Joint Commissioner, Headquarters, of Kolkata Police, Meeraj Khalid and Howrah Police Commissioner, Pravin Kumar Tripathi.
The state secretariat ‘Nabanna’, whose 14th floor has the office of the Chief Minister, comes under the jurisdiction of Howrah City Police.
“We had been reportedly seeking appointments with the Chief Minister and state Education Minister Bratya Basu to discuss the ways to come out of the crisis. But we are yet to get a positive response from any of them so far. So as a last resort, we have forwarded letters to senior police officials so that at least they could arrange a meeting with the Chief Minister. If this effort of ours also does not work out, then we will have no other option but to go to a bigger agitation, including a ‘March to state Secretariat’ rally,” a protesting “untainted” teacher said.
Their principal demand is that the state government and the West Bengal School Service Commission should immediately publish the lists segregating the “untainted” candidates from the “tainted” ones who allegedly got school jobs paying money.
“Why should we suffer for those who have adopted unethical means to get jobs?” questioned another protesting teacher.
On April 3 this year, a Supreme Court bench of then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar upheld the order by the Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justice Debangshu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi cancelling 25,753 school jobs.
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/vd