Mamata Banerjee urges teachers to end strike, says govt filing review plea in SC
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee asked the teachers, who hit the streets on Monday evening, to have faith in the administration
Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday appealed to the agitating schoolteachers and non-teaching staff whos,e appointments were invalidated following a Supreme Court ruling, to end their strike saying her government is going to file a review petition before the top court. She asked the agitators, who hit the streets on Monday evening, to have faith in the administration.
“Why are you agitating? Please go home. We are filing a review petition. Let the government do its job. You are getting your salary. Have faith in the government. Don’t be misled. The Group C and D staff should also let us consult lawyers. If needed we will file a review petition for them as well,” Banerjee said at an administrative meeting in Midnapore.
“We have to follow the law. Law shows a new path as well. I never want unemployment to rise in our state,” Banerjee said.
The Supreme Court on April 3 scrapped the appointment of 25,752 Bengal government-appointed 2016-batch schoolteachers and non-teaching staff in connection with the bribe-for-job allegations.
On an appeal by the state government, the top court allowed the untainted assistant teachers, who lost their jobs following the court’s earlier order in the West Bengal recruitment case, to continue in service until fresh hiring. The court also ordered the government to issue ads for the recruitment process by May 31 and complete the process by December 31.
Following this, a large number of Bengal school teachers appointed in 2016 launched a fresh agitation outside the Salt Lake office of the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) on Monday evening, demanding that the authorities release the full list of tainted and non-tainted appointments.
Banerjee alleged on Tuesday that the teachers lost their jobs because of a conspiracy.
She said: “We provide jobs, and they take away jobs. Don’t listen to them. We will expose the conspirators. Why are you bothered about who is tainted and who is non-tainted? It is our job. You should think about your job. Return to your schools. You are getting your salary. Those who are provoking you will not pay your salary. Our government will.”
“In Uttar Pradesh, 69,000 people lost their jobs forever when the Bharatiya Janata Party was in power. In Tripura, 10,000 teachers lost their jobs (during CPI(M) era). BJP came to power, but the teachers didn’t get their jobs back. In Bengal, we will protect your jobs. Why are you listening to others?” said Banerjee.
However, the agitators, who claimed to have passed the selection test because of merit and not by paying bribe, refused to move until the full list was released. WBSSC chairman Siddhartha Majumdar and several employees couldn’t leave the office even after 20 hours.
Reacting to Banerjee’s statement, Suman Biswas, an agitating teacher, said: “Why shouldn’t we be bothered? I will be unemployed after December 31 according to the Supreme Court order if the lists are released. Does she think we are fools? No political party is provoking us. It is our struggle.”
Meanwhile, the BJP Bengal unit started agitations in several districts on Tuesday demanding the chief minister’s resignation. BJP state president and Union minister of state for education Sukanta Majumdar led the agitation in Hooghly district.
“The only person responsible for this crisis is Mamata Banerjee. Trinamool Congress took fat bribe and sold government jobs. She knew everything and allowed the scam to take place,” said Majumdar.
In May 2022, the then Calcutta high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the appointment of non-teaching staff (Group C and D) and teaching staff by WBSSC and West Bengal Board of Secondary Education between 2014 and 2021 when Partha Chatterjee was education minister. Many appointees allegedly paid bribes in the range of ₹5-15 lakh to get jobs after failing the selection tests.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which started a parallel probe and arrested Chatterjee in July 2022, filed charges against him, ex-primary education board president and legislator Manik Bhattacharya and 52 others in January this year.
