Kolkata, Over 1,000 teachers, who lost their jobs following court rulings, launched a sit-in outside the West Bengal Education Department headquarters ‘Bikash Bhavan’, demanding that the state government expedite their recruitment.
The agitators are among 25,753 teachers and other staffers whose jobs were invalidated following a 2024 Calcutta High Court ruling over irregularities in the 2016 School Service Commission (SSC) exams, though which they were recruited, and the Supreme Court upholding it in 2025.
Braving rain, members of the ‘Deserving Teachers’ Forum’, displaying placards, took out a procession from Karunamoyee Crossing in Salt Lake adjacent to Kolkata, and it culminated in a sit-in outside Bikash Bhavan.
The apex court has given the state a deadline of May 30, 2027 for conducting recruitment test of the 2016 SSC candidates whose jobs were invalidated.
“We demand an audience with School Education Minister Dipak Barman, and intervention of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari into the issue,” Deserving Teachers’ Forum Subrata Biswas told PTI.
A strong police contingent was deployed even as the agitators raised slogans and squatted on the road in front of Bikash Bhaban.
“We believe the BJP, which had expressed solidarity with the jobless teachers during the TMC regime, will stand by us and fast-track the transparent recruitment of eligible educators,” Biswas added. PTI
