The protesting school employees, who were asked by the high court to shift their sit-in, said their movement would continue irrespective of the place.
“Although we will shift to a new site, our voices will not be silenced,” said a protesting teacher.
“Hopefully, the state administration will create the facility so that we can continue with the protest. The new site is not far from Bikash Bhavan, where we had been agitating since May 7,” said Sangita Saha, a schoolteacher who argued the case on behalf of the protesters at the court on Friday.
Subhra Ghosh, 36, a Bengali teacher at Jabagram MK Institution, who was present outside Bikash Bhavan, said: “Our main motive was to seek the attention of the government and the common people because of the injustice that has been done to us. So, the protest will continue.”
The protesting teachers said they would soon hold a meeting among themselves to discuss ways to keep the movement going.
They said that although they told the court that their sit-in outside Bikash Bhavan was not causing inconvenience, the court accepted the state government’s application to shift the site of the protest.
Amit Ranjan Bhuiya, who was present in the high court on Friday, said: “We told the court that we have not prevented anyone from going to offices housed at Bikash Bhavan, but the court said, as there is a law and order issue, something had to be done. We have to follow the court’s order.”
The teachers said they were staging a sit-in outside Bikash Bhavan to put pressure on the government, which, they alleged, was responsible for their loss of jobs.
The Supreme Court on April 3 terminated the jobs of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff because, it said, the entire recruitment process carried out by the school service commission in 2016 was “vitiated” beyond redemption.
The protesting teachers are those who the apex court, in its April 17 order, said could go to school till December 31 and draw salaries as they were “not specifically found to be tainted”.
Asked how they would continue their protest after schools resume classes
from June 2, after the summer vacation, the teachers said they have yet to decide on
that.
“We will decide on this. Obviously, our first priority is our job, and we have to go to school. But we are confident about carrying on the protest,” said Saha.