Bengal: Teachers who lost jobs begin march demanding release of OMR sheets

NEW DELHI: Thousands of teachers, who lost their jobs following a Supreme Court verdict that invalidated their appointments, began a march from Karunamoyee in Salt Lake to the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) Bhawan on Friday demanding the release of their Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets to identify the genuine candidates.

Carrying placards demanding reinstatement, the protesters were joined by members of various civil society organisations in a show of solidarity. "SSC should release the copies of the OMR sheets to help segregate the eligible teachers ," a demonstrator said. They claimed that the police officer accused of kicking teachers during a previous protest at the DI office in Kasba has now been assigned to investigate the cases registered against them.

"What can we expect from such a probe? In no civilised society does an accused investigate the victims," a protester remarked. A large police contingent, including personnel from the Rapid Action Force, was deployed to prevent the rally from reaching the SSC Bhawan. The Supreme Court last week declared the appointment of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staffers in state-run and state-aided schools as "vitiated and tainted".