The terminated teachers who have been barred from returning to schools have given a call for a march to the chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence on Monday. They demand that they too be allowed to return to schools till December 31.
The United Teaching and Non-teaching Forum, which represents the sacked teaching and non-teaching staff employees disallowed to return to schools, will organise the march that will start from the Hazra crossing at noon.
“We don’t know for what reasons we have been categorised as tainted teachers. The CBI has mentioned that our case comes under the OMR dispute category. But the Supreme Court in its April 3 order has not taken any cognizance of the CBI’s report. Then why was our salary stopped? We need answers to these questions,” said Kamalesh Kapat, a spokesperson of the platform.
Kapat, who used to teach in a school in West Midnapore’s Pingla, said in the absence of any salary or any allowances from the state government, their survival is at stake.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday proposed that the sacked Group C and Group D employees be given ₹25,000 and ₹20,000, respectively, as monthly allowances until the state government files a review petition before the Supreme Court and the case is resolved.
“We have filed a case before the Supreme Court challenging the CBI’s findings. Like the segregated ‘not specifically found to be tainted’ teachers, we must be allowed to return to the schools, or else the state government must give us some allowance on the
lines of what has been proposed for the Group C and Group D employees,” said
Kapat.
The tainted employees on Sunday tried to march to the Dum Dum residence of education minister Bratya Basu.
They were stopped by the police. A delegation of the tainted teachers then held a meeting with Bijon Sarkar, the president of Trinamool Congress Secondary Teachers’ Cell at Sonarpur in South 24-Parganas.
Sudarshan Mishra, a tainted teacher, said the apex court in its April 3 order stated the SSC argued that the selection process should not be annulled because the data available from the CBI, including the scanned mirror copies of the OMR sheets, “allows segregation of candidates.”
“The court said they may have accepted this argument if SSC had the original physical OMR sheets or the mirror copy of the OMR sheets. This means the court did not give any importance to the scanned images retrieved by the CBI. Then, on what basis have we been identified as tainted?” said Mishra.