‘Respect ‘boundary line’ of protests, seek legal remedy, will help you’
Kolkata: Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reminded the protesting teachers and non-teaching staff on Monday about the “Lakshman Rekha” (boundary line) for protests and urged them to explore legal avenues instead of taking to the streets.
“We are all humans. We can love those who have respect for humanity. I am not against ‘andolan’. However, there is a ‘Lakshman Rekha’ for an ‘andolan’. Just like I cannot stop anyone, nobody can do that to me as well. I would suggest that instead of doing this, they should fight the issue legally. We will help them,” Banerjee told media persons before embarking on her trip to North Bengal.
Banerjee said that the state government and the School Service Commission have filed separate review petitions against the verdict.
“We have filed a review petition from our end. Our lawyers will try to ensure that their jobs remain intact. However, we are compelled to abide by court orders,” she added, stating that they (the teachers) should have trusted the state government.
Blaming the Opposition parties for the continuing impasse, she said: “They did not lose their jobs because of us. Those who filed the case that led to the job loss are now provoking the teachers. To those who filed the case I want to ask, was it right for them to do so? Others should not be blocked by force or harmed through road blockades. There are more outsiders in the protest than the teachers.”
Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee requested the agitating teaching and non-teaching staff not to be violent while staging their movement.
“Everyone in a democratic country has the right to stage a protest. Not just Bengal, people in every Indian state have the right to do so. I will not demean their ‘andolan’ as I cannot do that. I don’t want this ‘andolan’ to be politicised. However, I would request those protesting that an ‘andolan’ can never be violent. ‘Andolan’ cannot be through vandalising government property, breaking gates, or using force. If this happens, the essence of the ‘andolan’ gets lost. This is my belief,” he said.
The Supreme Court in April scrapped the jobs of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff selected in the 2016 state-level selection test.
A section of the sacked teaching and non-teaching staff have been on a sit-in demonstration outside Bikash Bhawan for nearly a week now refusing to sit for another round of examinations and interviews as ordered by the apex court.
The SC had last month directed the state government to issue fresh advertisements for recruitments to the post by May 31 and complete the selection process by December 31.
