Teachers start relay hunger strike to protest job loss, police action in Bengal

A section of teachers who lost their jobs following a Supreme Court judgment which held that the whole appointment process was tainted on Thursday began a relay hunger strike outside the West Bengal School Service Commission SSC office in protest over the issue reported PTIJoining the protesters BJP MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay who is a former judge of the Calcutta High Court blamed the state administration and its wings for their plightThe teachers and other staff who lost their jobs said that they were also protesting police action against their compatriots at the district inspector DI of schools office at Kasba in south Kolkata on Wednesday reported PTIWe started a relay hunger strike agitation with one teacher at the beginning and will soon chalk out further programme to protest the issue one of the protesters told reporters outside the SSC office at Salt LakeThe agitating teachers have been holding a sitin outside the SSC office building Acharya Sadan since Wednesday night to protest the loss of jobs and police action against their compatriotsThe protesters alleged they were subjected to batoncharge and were even kicked and shoved around by law enforcement personnel during their agitation outside the DI office situated beside Kasba police station of the Kolkata PoliceNoting that the police have lodged cases against the protesting teachers over Wednesdays protest at Kasba Gangopadhyay said that this should not have been doneCases have been lodged against innocent teachers who lost their jobs for the illegal acts of others the BJP MP told reportersMaintaining that he had not gone to meet Education Minister Bratya Basu on Wednesday in protest against the police action he said that the BJP leadership was with him in his decision reported PTIGangopadhyay said that he along with former Rajya Sabha MP Rupa Ganguly came to the protest site at Acharya Sadan to express solidarity with the teachers and other staff who lost their jobsGangopadhyay as a judge of the Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI investigation in November 2021 into alleged irregularities in the recruitment processHe had also ordered the termination of more than 25000 jobs of teaching and nonteaching staff in West Bengal governmentrun and aided schools after finding irregularities in the process reported PTIThis order was upheld by a division bench of the high court and thereafter by the Supreme CourtThe Supreme Court on April 3 upheld a 2024 Calcutta High Court judgment annulling the recruitment of 25753 teaching and nonteaching staff appointed through a recruitment drive by SSC in 2016 terming the entire selection process vitiated and taintedThose who were rendered jobless claimed that the reason behind their plight was the inability of the SSC to differentiate between the candidates who secured employment through fraudulent means and those who did notThe Central Bureau of Investigation CBI and the Enforcement Directorate ED arrested former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee and some others who held positions in the states SSC when the irregularities in the recruitment process took placeWith inputs from PTIatOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params