Protesting teachers have no clarity about the new recruitment process of the state government. File | Photo Credit: Hind
Teachers “UNTAINTED” protest against the abolition of their appointment in West Bengal’s schools by the Supreme Court on Saturday (May 24, 2025) that they will wait until Monday before the state government will give them an audience and fail to escalate their agitation.
“It has been more than two weeks with our demonstration before the Ministry of Education, but neither Minister of Education nor any other minister has met us. We will wait until Monday … If the government did not meet us on Monday, we could escalate our protest,” Habib said on Saturday. Mr. Habib is a spokesman for Jogya Sikkhok-Sikkhika Adhikar Mancha, also known as the Forum of Teacher Rights (Dtr).
On behalf of the “tireless” teachers, he strongly urged the government to meet them and discuss the way forward.
The Supreme Court 3rd April confirmed the Kalkata High Court order 2024, which in 2016 canceled the appointment of almost 26,000 teaching and inconvenient employees over extended fraud in the state.
“All of us are rushing under a huge anxiety and we have no clarity of what will happen next. We need to know what the government thinks of us and what they think of the petition of review … we feel that we are neglected and ignored,” Mr. Habib said on Saturday.
He added that protesters do not have a clarity about the new recruitment process of the State Government for damaged teachers. For the context after compliance with the abolition of the appointment, Apex Courtlater granted temporary relief to teachers and stated that the 2016 panel denominators can continue to work until they disagree a new recruitment process by December 31.
“It is a question of our lives, our livelihood. There are many whose families will starve if they lose this job. There are pregnant women, free mothers, cancer patients and people with disabilities?” Mr. Habib asked.
Writing Members
Teachers on Saturday (May 24, 2025) also stressed that three days ago they wrote to the Minister of Education, but did not receive any answer. Mr. Habib said that Dtr will write again on Saturday to the Minister, after which they are waiting for their audience for Monday.
“We believe that thousands of us, who are unsuccessful, did not receive justice either from the government or from the court, despite our innocence. So we also decided to approach MPs so that our problem in parliament could evoke,” Habib said.
He added that the beginning of Saturday would be “relentless” teachers by deputies across the party lines and urged them to deal with their situation.
Shifting the protest site
On Friday, the High Court in Calcutta issued an order that ordered protesters to move their protest space from the external headquarters of state education, Bikash Bhawan, and told the village to provide facilities for them, including drinking water and biological toilets.
Brindaban Ghosh, another Dtr spokesman, while the HC greeted the order, said they decided to move their protest space only after the village closed shades, drinking water, electricity and organic.
“We discussed with the police last night and decided to move our protest space to Boimel Prangan … When the municipalities make these arrangements in Boimela Prangan, the police will inform our organization. Our representatives will visit the place and only move if we can prove that 200 of us can prove safely,” Ghosh said.
Published – May 24, 2025 21:54
