West Bengal Teachers Suspend Protest After SSC Releases Eligible Candidates List

After the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) on Friday announced a list of qualified applicants, teachers who had been demonstrating outside the SSC headquarters for the previous five days have chosen to temporarily halt their protest and go back to their schools.

Following the release of a list of approximately 16,000 qualified teachers by the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC), the protest was halted. The Eligible Teachers' Forum leader, Dhrithish Mandal, said that the demonstration at the SSC headquarters will not take place. He did, however, clarify that they will continue to demonstrate at Shaheed Minar in the heart of Kolkata. "Today, we are calling off our demonstration outside the SSC offices.

"We will now proceed with our protest at Shaheed Minar," Mandal said. He continued by saying that the forum is currently working on drafting a review petition for the Supreme Court in relation to a decision issued on April 3 that declared the employment of about 26,000 teachers hired following the 2016 SSC test to be void.

Focus on Court Petitioning and Legal Consultation

To give the forum's legal experts time to draft the case for the Supreme Court, Mandal clarified, the demonstration was being temporarily halted. "Sitting outside all day makes it difficult for us to consult legal experts and prepare the petition," he stated. He did, however, make it apparent that they would not stop their demonstration at Shaheed Minar until qualified instructors were allowed to return.

Publication of an incomplete SSC List

In response to the issue, Majumdar said, "The list has been made public, but it is not comprehensive. For the time being, nevertheless, it makes sense for people on the list to go back to school. He added that the Supreme Court is keeping an eye on the situation.

A teacher who was demonstrating said, "We will resume our protest during the summer holidays, focusing on our remaining demands, which include reinstating teachers up to the age of 60 and releasing the full list of eligible candidates."

The Protest's History

Teachers' demands for the immediate elimination of "tainted" applicants from the 2016 SSC recruitment and the restoration of jobs up to the retirement age sparked the protests on April 21. When teachers kept SSC Chairman Siddhartha Majumdar prisoner in his office for more than 40 hours earlier this week, demanding the release of the OMR sheets and a list of candidates without any flaws, the protests became more intense.

Court Decisions and Employment Losses

The Supreme Court's decision on April 3 to invalidate the whole 2016 recruitment panel because of many irregularities served as the impetus for the protests. Approximately 25,753 teaching and non-teaching employees in state-aided schools were consequently laid off. The protesting teachers are demanding a review to extend their job until retirement, even though the Supreme Court permitted the continuation of services for untainted instructors until December 31.

(PTI inputs)