Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday urged the protesting teachers and non-teaching staff to fight legally, instead of hitting the streets and not reposing faith in the state government.
“The teachers should have trusted the state government… I am not against movements. But every movement has a boundary line,” the chief minister told mediapersons before embarking for her trip to North Bengal. “Fight legally. We are also fighting legally with all the means available to us.”
The Mamata government received a double body blow in a span of a year as the Calcutta high court last year and the Supreme Court in April this year scrapped the jobs of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff selected in the 2016 state level selection test. The court’s verdict gave a seal to the allegations of cash-for-jobs indicting Trinamool ministers, party MLAs and officials in the state education board and the school service commission, and described the selection process as “vitiated” by “manipulation and fraud on a large scale, coupled with the intention to cover up” which had “tainted the selection process beyond repair.”
While giving the verdict, a bench led by then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna had observed, the appointments are by fraud and cheating.
The state government and the school service commission have filed separate review petitions against the verdict.
“We have filed a review petition. We will have to accept whatever the court decides,” the chief minister said.
A section of the sacked teaching and non-teaching staff have been on a sit-in demonstration outside Bikash Bhawan for nearly a week now. They refuse to sit for another round of examinations and interviews as ordered by the Supreme Court. The SC had last month directed the state government to issue fresh advertisements for recruitments to the post by May 31 and complete the selection process by December 31.
Mamata blamed outsiders for the violence at Bikash Bhawan last week in which protesters as well as cops were injured.
“We expect the teachers to show minimum respect, serve the society and teach children. They cannot keep others locked inside rooms for hours. There were outsiders involved.”
Like in the past she blamed Bengal’s opposition parties for the continuing impasse.
“They did not lose their jobs because of us. Those who filed the case that led to the job loss are now provoking the teachers. To those who filed the case I want to ask, was it right for them to do so?” Mamata questioned.