Security cordon around West Bengal state secretariat as 'eligible teachers' plan protest march

Kolkata: Tight security arrangements have been made around West Bengal state secretariat 'Nabanna' in Howrah on Monday as "eligible teachers", whose jobs were annulled following a Supreme Court order, planned a protest march demanding their reinstatement, a senior police officer said.

Although the route march of the 'Joggya Sikkhak Sikkhika Adhikar Mancha' (Deserving Teachers’ Rights Forum) has not been finalised yet, Howrah City Police deployed senior officers at crucial junctions to maintain law and order, with a specific focus on major entry points to Nabanna.

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"We are focused on preventing any major disruption to daily life and keeping the situation under control. To stop any such attempt, iron barricades have been placed at four strategic locations in Howrah to halt the protesters from advancing toward the state secretariat," the officer said.

Towering metal barriers have been erected at Bangabashi Crossing on GT Road, Ramkrishnapur Ghat Gate on Foreshore Road, Kazipara Crossing, and Satragachi Crossing, he said. "There are prohibitory orders around Nabanna and assembly of people is not permitted in the area. Additional security measures have been taken in the wake of the planned protest march ," he said.

Defensive services deployed

Around 2,000 police personnel, drawn from multiple commissionerates, have been deployed across Howrah. Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel have also been stationed at strategic locations, while water cannons are on standby to disperse any attempt to break through police barricades. The forum demanded that the state publish lists of "untainted certified teachers" besides OMR sheets, and restore the jobs of eligible teachers.

Also read SSC sends list of 'tainted', 'untainted' candidates to Bengal education department

Chinmoy Mondal, spokesperson of the forum, said that they were determined to hold the protest march despite the threat of police action. "This is our democratic right. We want the state government to fulfil our demands," he said. The teachers, who are scheduled to gather at Howrah station, have been staging protests for the past 68 days near Central Park in Salt Lake after earlier demonstrations at Bikash Bhavan, the headquarters of the state education department.

The Supreme Court on April 3 upheld a 2024 Calcutta High Court judgment annulling the recruitment of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staffers appointed through a recruitment drive by SSC in 2016, terming the entire selection process 'vitiated and tainted'.

Those who were rendered jobless claimed that the reason behind their plight was the inability of the state School Service Commission (SSC) to differentiate between candidates who secured employment through fraudulent means and those who did not. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier arrested former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee and some other officials, who held positions in the state SSC when the irregularities in the recruitment process took place.