Ready to support Bengal govt if it moves to retain jobs of ‘untainted’ teachers: Suvendu

Leader of opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Monday said the BJP would support an all-party resolution to retain “eligible” teachers in their school jobs if the government tabled such a motion in the House during the ongoing three-day special session.

These “eligible” teachers are among the nearly 26,000 teaching and non-teaching staff in state-run schools, whose appointments were annulled by the Supreme Court in April on grounds that the recruitment process was “tainted and vitiated” beyond redemption.

Speaking to reporters outside the Assembly premises after the first day’s session, which ended with an all-party and a business administration committee meeting besides the customary obituary statement, Adhikari said he had advised the chief whip of the BJP legislative party, Shankar Ghosh, to write to Speaker Biman Banerjee requesting a 30-minute slot to discuss the matter on 4 September, the scheduled final day of the session.

“I will personally write to state chief secretary Manoj Pant before the end of the day today and urge him to move the Supreme Court once again, this time armed with this unanimous all-party Assembly resolution and pray before the top court to consider allowing the untainted teachers to retain their jobs,” the BJP leader said.

Acting on a Supreme Court order, the state School Service Commission has published a list of 1,806 ‘tainted’ candidates who gained appointments in schools, allegedly through fraudulent means, from the 2016 SSC exams panel and have been disqualified from taking a fresh test, which would be conducted by the recruitment body this year.

While a section of agitating ‘eligible’ teachers who are unwilling to take the court-mandated fresh tests have expressed their reservation about the list, calling it “incomplete”, another section of those marked as ‘tainted’ have moved the Calcutta High Court, challenging the list.

“Now that the SSC has been forced to publish a list of ‘ineligible’ candidates, however faulty, let the state government table a resolution in the House naming the 15,000-odd ‘eligible’ teachers and stating they should be allowed to retain their jobs. The crisis that has cropped up on account of an exceptional turn of events in the state should be addressed by rising above political colours. We will support the resolution without a debate, if it is tabled,” Adhikari said.

“If vacancies still persist, the state can then go ahead and fill them by means of an exam conducted through a transparent process,” he added.

The BJP leader also spoke to a section of protesting teachers, demanding an all-party resolution on the matter, outside the Assembly premises. “I understand that it would be difficult for you to start preparing afresh for the exams that you already took nine years ago. That’s why we are trying to solve the crisis along with the government,” Adhikari was heard telling the agitating teachers.

Welcoming the move, the teachers said this could well be the last attempt to save their jobs which were earned on the basis of merit. “If this effort fructifies, it would set an example in the state of rectifying a gross injustice that we have been at the receiving end of,” said Chinmay Mondal, an agitating teacher representing ‘untainted’ candidates.

Led by Adhikari, the BJP MLAs later took out a protest rally within the assembly premises, holding chief minister Mamata Banerjee responsible for the crisis and demanding her resignation.

‘Chakri tumi korechho churi, gadi chharo taratari (you’ve stolen jobs, now vacate your chair at once)', read posters carried by the opposition MLAs that sported a caricature, presumably that of the chief minister.