nearly-4k-people-demonstrate-over-jobs-axed-on-calcutta-hc-s-order

Around 4,000 people, whose teaching appointments have been declared null and void by the Calcutta High Court due to irregularities in the recruitment process, on Tuesday demonstrated at Shahid Minar Ground in Kolkata.

 

A five-member delegation of those who lost their jobs also met officials of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education at its headquarters and discussed the situation.

 

A board official said, “The meeting lasted for over two hours. We heard their issues. We are sympathetic to their situation. But we have to abide by the high court’s decision.”

 

Azharuddin Rocky, a spokesperson of the retrenched teachers, told reporters, “We lost our jobs for no fault of ours. We had qualified for the exams based on our merit and cleared the written test and viva voce. After appointment, we have taken classes and no fingers were raised at us at our workplace all these years. If around 5,000 candidates had allegedly taken recourse to unfair means as stated in the CBI probe, why should we be victimised?” he asked.

 

A division bench of Calcutta High Court on April 22 cancelled 25,753 appointments of teaching and non-teaching staffers in state government-sponsored and aided schools, declaring null and void the recruitment process of the State Level Selection Test (SLST), 2016 conducted by the School Service Commission (SSC).

 

Rocky, who had joined a secondary school in southern West Bengal in 2018, said the retrenched teachers were separately moving the Supreme Court seeking justice.

 

Soma Barik, another retrenched teacher from Purba Bardhaman district, said, “I had left my job at a private English-medium school in 2017 after qualifying for the government job in a secondary school in my district. I did not have money to bribe anyone…. I had prepared hard for the exam. Now, I don’t know what will happen to me and my family. I have three mouths to feed, including my elderly parents and teenaged brother.”

 

She, however, added, “We have full faith in the court to start the process afresh. But it is gruelling to go through the entire process again. Also, will there be justice if I repeat my success again? Also, I am not getting any younger.”