Education minister Bratya Basu has said an official of the education department will “get in touch” with the protesting school teachers who have been found “not specifically tainted” and allowed to return to schools temporarily. The official will contact the protesters on Monday, the minister said.
On May 20, the teachers wrote to the minister, seeking a dialogue on ending the ongoing impasse. The teachers have been protesting in front of Bikash Bhavan since May 7.
“I had received a letter. But that letter did not specify why they sought a meeting with me. I guess, they (Deserving Teachers’ Rights Forum) have about 2,500 members. There is another faction with around the same number of members ready to cooperate with the state government. There is a third faction not staging any protest and reposing faith in the legal fight that the state government has initiated. We are sympathetic to all three factions,” the minister said after attending the annual conference of the All Bengal Principals’ Council held at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Golpark, on Sunday.
“If they want to meet us, they have to write to me within a format, specifying what they want to discuss. Someone will definitely get in touch with them on behalf of our department. The concerned official will appeal to them so they write following a definite format containing the specific demands,” he said.
On May 20, the teachers wrote to the minister requesting him “for an appointment to discuss” certain issues at the time of the minister’s convenience, a day after the chief minister Mamata Banerjee told them to protest within a Lakshman Rekha (boundary line).
The issues mentioned in the letter that the teachers wanted to discuss with the minister include the status and contents of the review petition in the Supreme Court, the notification of the fresh recruitment examination by the school service commission, and in case the review plea is rejected, what other avenues were available for them to retain their jobs.
When told about the points raised in the letter, Basu said on Sunday: “The letter that I had received does not mention any of these points. They only said they wanted a meeting”.
As the minister’s message on Sunday reached the protesting teachers outside Bikash Bhavan, the education secretariat, the teachers held a meeting to decide on their next course of action.
Chinmoy Mondal, the joint convener of the Deserving Teachers’ Rights Forum, said: “We will submit a fresh communication to the minister’s office on Monday. We want to discuss with the minister the review petition and the fresh recruitment notification that the school service commission is about to issue.”
The government, in its review petition, has contended that the apex court which on April 3 terminated the jobs of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff at the secondary and higher secondary level of the government aided schools, had failed to appreciate that over 18,000 candidates “not specifically found tainted” have also been made to suffer “for the alleged illegality by the SSC in the selection process in respect of certain other tainted candidates”.
The SSC, in its plea, has contended that when it was possible to segregate the tainted candidates, it was not clear why the apex court ordered the cancellation of the entire selection process.
In its April 17 order, the Supreme Court allowed relief to teachers “not specifically found tainted” but said they can only be given age relaxation if they write the fresh test and asked the state government and the SSC to submit an affidavit on the fresh process by May 31.
“The chief minister has told us to fight the legal battle till the end. We are trying to help the teaching and non-teaching staff as much as possible. It is for the SSC, an autonomous body, to decide when they would issue the notification,” Basu said on Sunday.
When told that some of the teachers found not specifically tainted, have demanded that they be given more relaxations apart from the age-relaxation if they are to write the tests afresh, Basu said: “They have to raise these issues with me.”