CM: Legal fight to continue but fresh recruitment will start as per SC order

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Tuesday, announced that the state government will initiate a fresh recruitment drive for teachers by May 31 in line with the Supreme Court directive and simultaneously pursue a review petition seeking reinstatement of ones who lost their jobs.

Appealing to the teachers who lost their jobs to take part in the fresh process, Banerjee said they will be given the benefit of their experience and age relaxation.

Addressing a press conference at Nabanna on Tuesday, she said: “We have filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against the WBSSC (West Bengal School Service Commission) judgement where we have clearly stated that no one should lose jobs. Presently, summer vacation is in effect at the apex court but the earlier CJI’s (Chief Justice of India) order has to be followed. Non-compliance will amount to contempt of court. If the review says you don’t have to sit for the exam, we will accept that. The SC has already set a May 31 deadline for issuing notification for teachers’ recruitment. Hence, we need to issue the advertisement for now.”

She added: “Both the review petition and the process of issuing the notification will go on simultaneously.”

She appealed to the teachers to junk the demand of not sitting for the examination and instead take the advantage of both the examination and review options. “Age will not be a barrier. Ones who lost their jobs will be allowed to sit for the examination even if they have crossed the usual age limit. They will also receive the benefit of their experience,” she said.

Banerjee announced that the state government will publish the recruitment advertisement on May 30. The online application process will begin on June 16 and will continue until July 14. The panel will be published on November 15, and counselling will begin on November 20. The state presently has 44,203 vacancies out of which 24,203 posts will be filled through examination for those who lost their jobs. The additional vacancies of teachers created are 11,517 for class IX and X and 6912 for class XI and XII. In case of Group C and Group D, the additional posts will be 571 and 1000, respectively.

The total posts of teachers in class IX and X, including the jobless teachers are 23212. For class XI and XII, it is 12514 while in Group C and D it is 2989 and 5488, respectively.

Banerjee assured that if no opportunity is available through the examination, applications will be allowed for jobs in other departments. She blamed the Opposition for this situation. “Some vested interests and selfish persons orchestrated that. Now they are trying to pose as friends of the job losers”. Meanwhile, the protesting teachers left jobless after a Supreme Court verdict expressed disappointment over the announcement of a fresh recruitment drive, calling it a “death warrant” for deserving candidates. “The state government, by asking us to sit for a fresh recruitment test, has virtually signed the death warrant for eligible teaching and non-teaching staff who were invalidated by the SC order. We had apprehension that the government is forcing us to sit for the test again and our apprehensions turned out to be true,” said Brindaban Ghosh, one of the protesting teachers.

Rakesh Alam, another affected teacher, questioned the feasibility of preparing for a high-stakes competitive exam in such a short time. “What will the syllabus be? Who is eligible? We need clarity,” he said, urging the Chief Minister to meet with them before issuing the fresh recruitment notification.