WBSSC job case: Teachers' deadline seeking meeting with Bengal minister ends today

Kolkata, May 26 (IANS) The deadline given by teachers, who lost their jobs following a recent Supreme Court order in the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment case, to state Education Minister Bratya Basu to meet them and address their concerns is ending on Monday.

Although Basu had assured that all attempts would be made to arrange a meeting between the protesting teachers and a state government representative, he has not made it clear whether he would be that representative.

However, the protesting teachers united under the “Jogyo Shikshak-Shikshika Adhikar Mancha (Genuine Teachers’ Rights Forum)" are adamant about meeting the state education minister only and discussing the issues.

The protesting teachers, identified as "untainted" or "genuine" candidates, have warned of intensified agitation if the state Education Minister fails to respond by May 26. Now their sole demand is a firm commitment from the state government on a deadline by which the list segregating the “untainted” candidates from the “tainted” candidates will be published.

Legal experts, however, feel that the publishing of the segregated list is a major problem for the state government since earlier both the Calcutta High Court and then the Supreme Court had asked the state government whether the segregation of the “untainted” and “tainted” candidates was possible on part of the administration or not.

Now, legal circles feel that if the state government publishes the segregated list, questions are bound to surface on why it was not published before, when the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court insisted on it.

At the same time, the forum members have also decided to send individual communications to all Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs from West Bengal, urging them to raise the issue of the affected teachers in Parliament. They will approach the MPs of both the ruling and opposition parties.

On April 3, a Supreme Court bench comprising then Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar upheld a previous order of the Calcutta High Court that annulled 25,753 school appointments made through the WBSSC.

The apex court observed that the panel had to be scrapped entirely due to the authorities' failure to distinguish between "tainted" and "untainted" candidates.

The state government and the WBSSC have since filed review petitions in the Supreme Court seeking reconsideration of the order.

--IANS

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