WB teachers to protest outside SSC office till list separating tainted candidates released

Jobless after the entire 2016 West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) panel was scrapped, teachers and non-teaching staff are staging a sit-in protest outside the commission’s office in Kolkata. They demand the release of a list separating tainted from untainted candidates and mirror images of OMR sheets of 22 lakh candidates. Until then, they vow to continue their protest at the SSC’s doorstep.

 

In line with their demands and as promised by West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu during an April 11 meeting, the SSC is expected to release the long-awaited list on Monday. Their next steps will depend on what the list reveals.

 

After reviewing the contents of the published list and deciding whether everyone is satisfied with it, jobless teachers and education workers will announce their next course of action.

 

Protesters insist that if the published list falls short of expectations, they’re ready to escalate the movement—through prolonged sit-ins or even road blockades. A section of them is also demanding more than transparency: they want the SSC to publicly admit its failures and immediately terminate any tainted candidates named in the revised list.

 

Earlier in the day, crowds marched toward the commission’s office in solidarity. Leading the charge was theJogyo Shikshak Shikshika Odhikar Mancha (Qualified Teachers’ Rights Platform), the primary force behind the protests triggered by the Supreme Court’s verdict.

 

They were joined by the Group C Group D Shikshakarmi Mancha, representing non-teaching staffers also affected by job losses.

 

Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court on Monday questioned the SSC over its failure to implement the Supreme Court’s directives—specifically, the recovery of salaries from those deemed “ineligible” or “tainted,” and the publication of OMR sheets uncovered by the CBI during its investigation.

A division bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Mohammad Shabbar Rashidi, while hearing a contempt petition, directed the SSC and the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education to submit their responses by Wednesday, when the matter is scheduled to be heard again.

 

The CBI faced questions as well. The division bench reportedly asked the federal agency why ineligible candidates hadn’t been taken into custody for interrogation, which was allowed by the original Calcutta High Court that the Supreme Court upheld.

India