Jobless teachers target Bengal government after baton charge; “undesirable,” says govt

Also read: Allahabad University, college teachers’ body cross swords over talking to media

The incident happened at the office of the district inspector of schools (DI) at south Kolkata’s Kasba on Wednesday afternoon when a few hundred jobless teachers staged an agitation seeking redressal.

As television news channels aired visuals from the Kasba DI office, showing policemen beating up the agitators with batons and even using fists, Bengal chief secretary Manoh Pant convened a press conference at the state secretariat with Kolkata police commissioner Manoj Verma by his side.

“Six police personnel, including two women, were injured first when the agitators attacked them. Those scenes are not being shown by the news channels. Police had to use some force to remove the agitators. However, whatever has happened is undesirable. I say it on record,” said Verma.

The affected teachers held agitations in some districts as well but no violence was reported from anywhere.

Also read: Teacher aspirants in Bihar mob education minister demanding TRE-3 supplementary results

Pant said that on April 7 chief minister Mamata Banerjee assured the jobless teachers that their interests would be protected.

“We have already filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking clarification on its order and a review petition will be filed soon. The incidents in Kolkata and some districts are undesirable. We respect teachers. They should also exercise restraint. The state is with them,” said Pant.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and the youth wing of the Trinamool Congress also hit the streets on Wednesday to express their sympathy for the affected people and their families.

“Mamata Banerjee has expressed her sympathy for the teachers by using batons,” said BJP legislator Shankar Ghosh who was arrested during the BJP’s agitation.

The teachers left the Kasba DI office after the incident but marched down to Gariahat and blocked the four-point intersection for around an hour.

The division bench of the Supreme Court Chief Justice cancelled the appointments of 25,752 school teachers and staff on April 3 after hearing a petition in the corruption case.

Those who lost jobs were empanelled by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) in 2016. The CJI’s bench said on April 3 that it had no option but to scrap the entire 2016 panel because there was no way left to differentiate between tainted and untainted employees.

Also read: Foreign-trained teachers are acting as catalyst in education ‘revolution’: Punjab CM

The investigation started in May 2022 when the Calcutta high court ordered the CBI to probe the appointment of teachers and non-teaching staff (Group C and D) by the SSC and West Bengal Board of Secondary Education between 2014 and 2021 when TMC’s Partha Chatterjee was the education minister. The appointees allegedly paid bribes in the range of ₹5-15 lakh to get jobs after failing the selection tests.

The ED, which started a parallel probe and arrested Chatterjee in July 2022, framed charges against him, ex-primary education board president and legislator Manik Bhattacharya and 52 others in January this year.