KOLKATA: Since the online application started for filling up vacant jobs of teaching staff for state-run schools in West Bengal, which have been lying vacant following the cancellation of 25, 753 teaching and non-teaching following by the Supreme Court in April, the job-losing “untainted” or “genuine” teachers continue to refrain from participating in the fresh recruitment process.
Originally, the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC)’s portal for submission of online applications was supposed to open at 5 p.m. on Monday. However, due to technical snags, the portal opened at 10.30 p.m.
Even after that, for about an hour, the applicants faced difficulties in submitting online applications. An insider from the commission clarified that because of the rush of applicants, there was excessive pressure on the portal concerned, for which the applicants faced initial problems in submitting their online application.
However, the process started functioning smoothly from around 11.30 p.m. Monday, and at the time the report was filed, over 1, 000 applications had already been submitted.
However, the “untainted” or “genuine” teachers are adamant in their stand on refraining from participating in the fresh recruitment process. Instead, they would like to wait for the outcome of the review petition in the matter filed at the apex court.
A section of the “untainted” teachers, united under “Jogyo Shikshak-Shikshika Adhikar Mancha (Genuine Teachers’ Rights Forum)", the banner under which the protest movements are being organised, also started a fast-unto-death protest near the WBSSC office at Salt Lake in the northern outskirts of Kolkata from June 12.
“We have no reason to appear for a fresh recruitment examination since we qualified for the job earlier and in the proper way unlike the “tainted” ones, who got jobs paying money. First the Calcutta High Court last year and then the apex court in April this year would not have ordered for the cancellation of jobs of “untainted” teachers along with the “tainted” teachers had the West Bengal government and the Commission published separate lists segregating the “untainted” teachers from the “tainted” ones, ” said Mehboob Mondal, one of the representatives of the said forum.
Members of another association of protesting teachers, christened West Bengal Attended Teachers’ Association, have also claimed that their members too would not submit fresh applications. “None of our members will make fresh online applications. Our request to the state government is to concentrate on the review petition, ” said an association representative, Mrinmay Mondal.
On April 3, a Supreme Court bench comprising then Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar upheld a previous order of the Calcutta High Court that annulled 25, 753 school appointments made through the WBSSC.
The apex court observed that the panel had to be scrapped entirely due to the authorities' failure to distinguish between "tainted" and "untainted" candidates.
The state government and the WBSSC have since filed review petitions in the Supreme Court seeking reconsideration of the order.