West Bengal: Teachers suspend stir in front of SSC Bhavan, sit-in continues at Sahid Minar

KOLKATA: The protesting teachers who had laid siege to the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) headquarters for the past five days on Friday decided to temporarily suspend their agitation and return to their schools, following the publication of a list of eligible candidates.

A leader of the Deserving Teachers Forum said the move comes after the WBSSC released a list of around 16,000 eligible teachers. "We are withdrawing the sit-in before the SSC headquarters from today. Our protest will continue at Sahid Minar in central Kolkata," Dhritish Mondal, one of the forum's leaders, told PTI.

He said the forum was focusing on the review petition to be filed in the Supreme Court regarding the April 3 order invalidating the jobs of around 26,000 teachers recruited following the 2016 SSC test.

"Sitting here the whole day in the open will make it difficult for us to prepare the petition by consulting legal experts. However, the sit-in at Sahid Minar will continue till the eligible teachers are reinstated," he added.

Another teacher Subhankar Ghosh said the protest will continue to press for demands like including the names of 10 more teachers in the list released by the WBSSSC. SSC chairman Siddhartha Majumdar had described the omission of the 10 names as a technical error and promised a fresh list.

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"We will resume our agitation"

"Though a list has been released, albeit incomplete, it is prudent for teachers whose names have appeared in the list to return to school for now. The Supreme Court is also monitoring the situation. We will resume our agitation during the summer vacation to press for our remaining demands, including reinstatement until the age of 60 and the publication of a complete list of eligible candidates," said one of the protesting teachers.

The teachers had launched their sit-in on April 21, demanding reinstatement in schools until retirement age and the immediate removal of candidates found 'tainted' in the 2016 SSC recruitment. Their protest intensified earlier this week when they confined Majumdar to his office for over 40 hours, demanding that the commission publish OMR sheets and the list of untainted candidates.

Around 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff of state-aided schools lost their jobs after the Supreme Court, on April 3, scrapped the entire 2016 recruitment panel due to large-scale irregularities. While the apex court has allowed services of untainted teachers to continue till December 31, protestors are demanding a review to extend their employment till retirement.