Bengal: Three teachers on indefinite fast demanding release of OMR sheets

NEW DELHI: Demanding immediate demarcation between tainted and untainted candidates, three ‘eligible’ teachers from state-run schools — whose jobs were invalidated by the Supreme Court on April 3 — continued their indefinite fast outside the West Bengal SSC Bhavan on Friday. They started the fast on Thursday. The three teachers — Pankaj Roy, Suman Biswas, and Pratap Kumar Saha — vowed to continue their protest until the SSC publishes the OMR list of all 26,000 candidates whose appointments were cancelled by the Supreme Court and officially declares the number of tainted and untainted candidates from the 2016 SSC exams.

"I am a political science teacher at Salaidanga High School in Malda with six years of experience. I am not tainted," Roy told PTI. "We will not withdraw the fast under any circumstances until the SSC releases the OMR list . It is better to die than live in the current situation thrust upon us by the ineptitude of this council. Why can’t they inform the Supreme Court that we are not tainted? The ‘lollipop’ of voluntary service and no termination of salary and service for the time being is not acceptable." Suman Biswas of Nakasipara High School echoed the sentiment.

"We have our backs to the wall. This agitation won't end until the SSC officially announces us as untainted. Whose interests are they serving?" Rabindranath Saha, a visually challenged teacher from a school in the Sagardighi block, also lost his job after six years of service. "Though the Supreme Court made some concessions for candidates like us in its order, that’s only temporary relief," said Saha, who was a topper in secondary and higher secondary exams and holds a first-class master’s degree from Visva-Bharati University.

No word from SSC yet

"We are yet to receive any notification from the SSC or the School Education Department," he added. Saha admitted he hadn’t gathered the courage to inform his parents about the court’s order. "They think I’ve gone to school today like every other day. If I tell them the truth, I don’t know if they can bear the shock." Sanjoy Dango, who lost his job as a Life Science teacher at a school in the Asansol, regretted leaving his earlier job at a secondary school in Burnpur, where he worked from 2013 to 2016.

"In 2016, I left that job and took the fresh recruitment test. I was among the top five," he said. "Now we are facing an uncertain future. The SSC has not given me any assurance or proposed a way to return to my previous workplace, as suggested in the Supreme Court’s order." Dango added that he has ailing parents, a child, and a brother to support. He had chosen the Asansol school because it was closer to home.