Mita Mukherjee

Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday vowed to support all deserving teachers whose appointments have been cancelled by the Supreme Court and she said that as long as she is alive, she will not let any eligible candidate lose their job.

At the same time she said that she will abide by the Supreme Court verdict though according to her the top court ruling was unjust for the deserving candidates.

The chief minister today met thousands of teachers who lost their jobs as the Supreme Court last week upheld an order of Calcutta High Court to cancel the appointments of over 25,753 teaching and non-teaching employees of state-aided schools.

“As long as I am alive, I will not allow anybody to sack even a single deserving teacher….. I will stand with them and ensure that they don’t get sacked….. Remember this is my commitment to you… I am always ready to accept a challenge… I know some people are trying to send me to jail… But I don’t care… I am ready to go to jail…” the chief minister said addressing the gathering of teachers.

The Supreme Court on April 3 directed termination of services of all the 25,753 teachers and non-teaching employees citing large-scale corruption and irregularities in the entire recruitment process bringing a big blow to the Mamata Banerjee government. The state had been witnessing protests and agitations against the government since the announcement of the verdict and the Opposition including BJP has demanded the resignation of the chief minister.

Mamata today said that the affected teachers should not consider that she has accepted what has been happening with them. “We are not stone-hearted. We understand what you are going through.”

She said that the state government will seek a clarification from the Supreme Court on who are the deserving candidates and who are not.

“ The Supreme Court must clarify who are the deserving candidates and who are not.  We will appeal to them to give us the list….. By sacking so many teachers the education system has almost collapsed… No one has the right to dismantle the education system of our state in this way….., If they don’t clarify we will definitely find a way and ensure that you don’t suffer… We have separate plans in case we don’t get the clarification,” the chief minister said.

She also cited the example of all-India medical entrance examination NEET irregularities and wondered why the Supreme Court had not cancelled the entire examination in that case.

“ There was the Vyapam case in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh. The affected have not got justice… So many allegations surfaced in the NEET case… But the entire exam was not cancelled by the court… Then why are you targeting Bengal….” she asked.

The court directed the state government to conduct fresh recruitment within three months and offer relaxation to the untainted teachers.

Many schools had been facing a teacher crisis since the announcement of the Supreme Court order as teachers who lost their jobs stopped attending their duties.

The chief minister today said since the state government has not issued any termination letters, teachers should attend their jobs regularly on a voluntary basis.

“Please do your job. Your job has not been terminated. You will be compensated,’ the chief minister said.

However, affected teachers have said that they will not sit for any fresh exam as they are not involved in any corruption and they got their job only on the basis of merit.

The Supreme Court in its order had said that there had been “manipulations” and “frauds” on a large scale in the selection process of appointing teachers in the 2016 recruitment exercise when the 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff had been appointed. “ Manipulations and frauds on a large-scale coupled with the attempted cover-up, have dented the selection process beyond repair and partial redemption …. The credibility and legitimacy of the selection are denuded..” the top court bench of Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice  Sanjay kumar had said.

Meanwhile, there was chaos outside the stadium today as a large number of people gathered there wanting to participate at the meeting. The police had a tough time handling the crowd. However, only those who had the valid passes were only allowed to enter.

Also read: Teacher jobs scam: SFI, DYFI protest in Kolkata, demand Mamata’s resignation