Questions about their future remained unanswered for the sacked teachers and non-teaching staff in Bengal following a two-hour meeting with state education department officials at Bikash Bhawan on Monday afternoon.
“There are many questions that the state officials could not answer,” said a protesting teacher. “Only the chief minister and the state education minister have those answers. The state education minister did not meet us today. We don’t know why he did not meet us. That was the first disappointment.”
The only positive development, according to the protesters, was the review petition filed by the state government with the Supreme Court on the verdict that scrapped the jobs of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff of classes XI to XII in state-run and state-aided schools.
The recruitment scam dates back to 2016 when the School Service Commission had issued notification for recruitment through the state level selection test. Later many of the candidates knocked the court’s door alleging money exchanged hands for appointment. Court-ordered probes by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and later the Enforcement Directorate (ED) confirmed the allegations.
Both the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court have described the recruitment process as tainted and vitiated.
Last month, the Supreme Court had given the state government time till May 31 to issue a fresh notification for restarting the recruitment process for the scrapped panel from 2016.
“The draft of the review petition (which has already been filed by the state government) is satisfactory,” said Brindaban Ghosh, one of the six-member team that met the education department officials at Bikash Bhawan. “We are not seeing any urgency on behalf of the state government for the review petition to be heard early. We were told it is the prerogative of the Supreme Court and the government cannot interfere.”
Unhappy with the apex court’s deadline of May 31 for fresh notification, the sacked teachers suggested an application be filed before the Supreme Court to allow time till the verdict on the review petition is out.
“We do not want to go through the recruitment process all over again. Physically and mentally are not in a condition to sit for the tests again. We requested the state government to find a legal route to save the panel from 2016,” said Ghosh. “So far we have not received any answers.”
The teachers and non-teaching staff have threatened to take their protest to Delhi, as they believe they did not get justice.
“We were not terminated. We were not singled out by the Calcutta High Court to return our wages with interest. Our documents have been verified more than 20 times. The Court failed to consider our case on humanitarian grounds,” said a sacked teacher.
The protesters are also wary that any hint of corruption in any other recruitment exam could lead to job losses in the future citing this case as a precedent.