West Bengal: 10 women hold protest outside Assembly seeking recruitment in school

KOLKATA: Demanding that interviews for recruitment in schools be arranged for them, ten women candidates, who claimed to have cleared school service commission exam, held a demonstration outside the main gate of West Bengal Assembly on Monday before being taken away by the police.

Shortly after the House was adjourned in the afternoon, following an ugly fracas among the MLAs, the ten candidates were seen huddling before the Assembly gate, seeking immediate recruitment Police personnel guarding the prohibited zone initially tried to chase them away, but as the protesters refused to budge, women officers had to lift them and take them to the police van.

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"We qualified in SSC exams years ago but are yet to get a call for interview," one of the protesters said. A police officer said that the women were released later in the day.

Earlier, the West Bengal education minister Bratya Basu had said in the Assembly that the school education department will fill up all the vacant posts of teachers in an expeditious manner. "We give importance to imparting quality education to children in state-run and aided schools. Our students are making us proud with their achievements in the country. So while recruiting, we exercise caution so that there is no compromise on the quality front," Basu said during a question-answer session in the House.

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As instructed by the chief minister, the department is taking every single step to "fill up all vacant posts of teachers in the state-run and aided schools in an expeditious manner". Basu said the authorities will take help of the portal of the department to see if meritorious students are either posted in schools near their residences or within the respective district.