Jobless non-teaching staff protest outside West Bengal education minister's home demanding reinstatement

KOLKATA: Around 200 non-teaching employees of state schools, demanding reinstatement of their jobs, demonstrated outside West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu's residence here for a brief period on Saturday.

They are among the people who lost their jobs following the Supreme Court order on April 3. The apex court upheld an earlier verdict of the Calcutta High Court and invalidated 25,752 appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff.

These appointments had been made by a recruitment panel set up by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) in 2016. The demonstrators held placards demanding reinstatement of their jobs at their respective workplaces.

They said they wanted the state to take up their issue with the Supreme Court . The protestors dispersed from the spot in the Lake Town area of north Kolkata after the minister, through the police personnel, sent a message to them saying that he would personally meet them next week, a police officer said.

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United Forum of Non-Teaching Employees

The minister, through his message, also said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is actively working to find a solution to their issue, the police officer said. He sent the message through the police personnel since he was not at home when the jobless non-teaching staff agitated , police sources said.

The demonstrators, belonging to the United Forum of Non-Teaching Employees, had been holding protests and launched an indefinite fast near the WBSSC headquarters in the Salt Lake area since April 21.

"Why can't we get salaries till December 31 like the teachers? We have to take so much load and work pressure during school hours. Our services are not being recognised," the forum's spokesperson Rupam Banik said.