Protesting teachers in Bengal go on hunger strike ‘till government meets demands'
Protesting teachers in West Bengal, whose appointments were cancelled after the Supreme Court order, have gone on a hunger strike, demanding that the government pause fresh recruitments until their review petition yields a result.
Ten protesting teachers — Mita Sarkar, Chinmoy Mondal, Koushik Sarkar, Balaram Biswas, Sukumar Soren, Bikash Roy, Manik Majumder, Kishore Kumar Roy, Anirban Saha, and Achinta Das — started 'fasting unto death' from 1 am on June 13.
As of going to press, they would have completed nearly 48 hours of their hunger strike.
'We lost our livelihoods for no fault of ours, but because of the government's corruption. So we have been forced to take this extreme step. We will not end our hunger strike till our demands are met, or till our bodies give in,' fasting teacher Mr Mondal said.
This development follows months of protests after a Supreme Court order on April 3 invalidated nearly 26,000 teaching and non-teaching job appointments from the recruitment panel published by the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) in 2016, citing a 'vitiated and tainted' hiring process.
Following a consequent order by the Supreme Court, the West Bengal government published the rules and notification for fresh recruitments to fill 44,203 vacancies for the position of assistant teachers.
Meanwhile, the State and the SSC have also filed review petitions at the Supreme Court. 'The process of the review petition [before the Supreme Court] and fresh appointments will continue simultaneously,' Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said on May 27 this year.
However, 'sacked and untainted' teachers have raised questions on why the application deadline for fresh recruitments is set before the Supreme Court can take a decision on the review petition.
'Our primary demand behind the hunger strike is for the government to postpone or put on hold fresh recruitments till the Supreme Court pronounces a judgement on the review petition. As of now, the deadline to apply for fresh recruitment closes before the Supreme Court is due to reopen after summer recess on July 14. We believe the government is not interested in pursuing the review petition earnestly,' Mehebub Mondal, a protesting teacher and leading voice of the Jogyo Shikkhok Shikkhika Adhikar Mancha (JSSAM), told The Hindu.
He explained that the review petition is one of the last remaining hopes for 'untainted' teachers to have their job appointments reinstated without re-examination.
'We have proved our worth once and have worked diligently as teachers for seven years. We are innocent victims of the government's corruption. The SSC should publish a certified list of 'untainted candidates' and a fresh merit list for 2016 after re-evaluating our OMR sheets. That will help us retain our jobs, and the worthy waitlisted candidates can also find their deserved position in the merit list,' Mr Mondal said.
He added that if the sacked teachers must reappear for fresh recruitments, they demand to be recruited through a separate notification and selection process, meant only for the affected teachers of the cancelled 2016 panel.
Mr Mondal also claimed that the SSC chairperson, during his meeting with JSSAM representatives on June 12, did not accept any of the demands put forth by the protesting teachers.
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