SC ruling on Bengal school jobs: Mamata vows full support to candidates

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has assured full support to the eligible candidates who lost their school jobs following a Supreme Court order last week, asserting that her government will ensure they don’t remain jobless or have a break in service.

“I will stand by those who have lost their jobs in an unjust manner. I don’t care what others think. I will do everything to restore your dignity,” Mamata said during a meeting with the affected candidates and school staffers at Kolkata’s Netaji Indoor Stadium on Monday (April 7).

The apex court on April 3 upheld the cancellation of 25,753 school job appointments made through the 2016 West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC), calling the entire selection process “vitiated and tainted”.

Also read: SC annuls jobs of 25,000 Bengal school teachers, orders fresh hirings

Plans in place to help eligible candidates: CM

Reiterating that the state government respects the Supreme Court ruling, Mamata said the administration is taking proactive steps to handle the situation with “utmost care and fairness”.

“Please don’t consider that we have accepted it (court ruling). We are not stone-hearted, and I can even be jailed for saying this, but I don’t care,” Mamata told the gathering of hundreds of people who queued up at the Netaji Indoor Stadium for the meeting.

“We have separate plans in place to ensure that the eligible candidates do not face any break in service. We will not allow them to remain jobless,” she said.

Also read: ‘How will we pay bills?’: SC order sparks outrage among Bengal teachers

‘No inkling’ about discrepancies: CM

The situation outside the stadium was chaotic as people who had not been issued entry passes also arrived at the venue to attend the programme. Police officers, present in large numbers, had a tough time pacifying the assembled people who wanted to enter the stadium to attend the meeting.

The chief minister also claimed that her name was being dragged into something about which “I have no inkling”, referring to discrepancies in the school job appointments.

The Supreme Court in its verdict cited large-scale irregularities and fraud in the recruitment process. Mamata called the verdict unjust for deserving candidates.

“There is a conspiracy to break the entire education system. A dirty game is being played by some people,” she said, in an apparent reference to opposition BJP and the CPI(M).

Also read: Can't accept SC verdict, says Mamata Banerjee as she slams BJP for 'conspiracy'

Opposition protests

Twenty teachers handpicked by Mamata shared the dais with her along with state Education Minister Bratya Basu, sparking criticism from the Opposition. The Bengal BJP called for a protest march to the chief minister’s Kalighat residence at 1 pm as she held the meeting.

“She is not the chief minister but only the TMC’s leader. If she were the chief minister, she would have met all the teachers, not a select few,” said BJP leader and LoP Suvendu Adhikari.

He and other BJP MLAs sat in protest at the state Assembly brandishing “Mamata Chor (thief)” posters.

The controversy dates back to 2016 when the SSC received 23 lakh applications for 24,640 vacancies. However, the number of appointment letters issued exceeded the number of available posts.

A probe revealed that the OMR sheets had been tampered with and the rankings manipulated. The Calcutta High Court cancelled the appointments in April 2024, which the Supreme Court upheld last week.

(With agency inputs)