Thursday, 15 May 2025
Thursday, 15 May 2025
The gates of Bikash Bhawan, the mainstay of Bengal’s education policies, were rocked by agitating former government school teachers caught between the law and a corrupt recruitment system.
On Thursday afternoon, hundreds of sacked schoolteachers, men and women, had assembled outside Bikash Bhawan in Salt Lake. Their demand, they will not appear for another round of examination, as ordered by the Supreme Court.
What followed was an altercation with the police as well as alleged supporters of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation chairman Sabyasachi Dutta, who when he went to mediate was greeted with cries of “thief, thief.”
The Supreme Court, which upheld a Calcutta high court division bench order to scrap the appointments of 25,752 teaching and non-teaching staff in the cash-for-jobs scam, last month, gave the Mamata Banerjee government time till December 31 to complete the recruitment process.
The SC later allowed the teachers to continue in their positions till the appointment process was completed with due diligence. The state government will file a review petition against the SC order.
The teachers, who have been on the streets for several years now, have expressed their concern over appearing again citing personal reasons as well as doubts over whether the recruitment process would be actually clean.
A former education minister, several Trinamool MLAs and functionaries in the education department were arrested in the cash-for-jobs scam.
Partha Chatterjee, the former education minister, is still behind bars. Another accused in the case, the Tehatta MLA Tapas Saha breathed his last on Thursday morning after a brain haemorrhage.
Hundreds of teachers had decided to gherao Bikash Bhawan on Thursday following which heavy police bandobast was made outside the premises.
The protesters tried to break open the main gate and jostled with the cops on duty.
Dutta, the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation chairman, was assigned to speak with the protesters and ensure they leave without any major incident.
Protesters unhappy with the government poured their ire at the politician.
“We did not offer bribes to any politician or minister to get jobs. Why should we sit for exams again?” asked a protesting teacher.
Another painted Bikash Bhawan as a den of corruption.
Some of the protesters were involved in a war of words with chairman Dutta after which he was escorted out by the cops. His supporters were later accused of assaulting some of the protesters.
The scuffle at the Bikash Bhawan is still on with the protesters refusing to leave the site.
Dutta did not deny that there was a scuffle between his supporters and the protesters. “In my ward no one can get away by abusing me.”
