West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
| Photo Credit: PTI
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said the protesting teachers should have trusted the Trinamool government and fought the situation legally.
“Nobody’s salaries have been withheld till now. The Group-C and Group-D workers, who will not be paid, will get an allowance through a scheme we formed… They should have trusted the State government. I, myself, held a meeting with them. We expect minimum courtesy and dignity from the teachers. They should work for the society beyond politics,” Ms. Banerjee said on Monday.
The Supreme Court on April 3 upheld the Calcutta High Court’s 2024 order cancelling appointments of nearly 26,000 teaching and non-teaching staff citing ‘irregularities’ in the 2016 recruitment. Since then, the affected candidates have been agitating, demanding a segregated list flagging ‘tainted’ ones.
While the Supreme Court later granted them relief, saying that those of the 2016 panel can continue their jobs till the government initiates a fresh hiring process by December 31 this year, they have been staging protest.
“I had and will always have extensive sympathy for the teachers. I held a meeting and said that we will file for a review. We have to follow the law in matters of the court, and there are some obligations… We have filed a review petition from our end. Our lawyers will try to ensure that their jobs remain intact. However, we cannot ignore the court orders. We are compelled to abide by court orders,” the CM said.
Her ‘only grouse’, she stressed, is that common people “should not be blocked by force or harmed through road blockades.” A few days ago, on May 15, a protest by the Deserving Teachers Rights’ Forum outside the West Bengal Education Department headquarters at Bikash Bhawan turned violent when protesters clashed with the police. The police baton-charged protesters, injuring several. The police later justified their use of ‘minimal force’, alleging that the protesters broke barricades and locked over 500 Bikash Bhawan employees inside the premises. Shortly, the police issued summons to teachers allegedly involved in the clash.
“There are more outsiders in the protest than the teachers,” she alleged, adding that there should be a ‘lakshman rekha’ (strict boundary). “I would suggest that instead of doing this, they should fight the issue legally. We will help them. We are already doing it as well. We are not against it,” the Chief Minister said.
However, in response to her statements, a large section of protesting teachers have questioned whether they have the space to trust the State government. “Can we quietly wait in hopes of the government fighting for us anymore? They had asked us to have faith in them when our appointments were cancelled by the HC and then by the SC. A whole year went by like that. We cannot keep trusting the administration and watch our deathbeds be prepared in front of us,” said Chinmoy Mondal, a protesting teacher.
Meanwhile, a section of assistant teachers, who claim to be ‘untainted’ victims of the cancellation of the appointments, has written to the CM, Education Minister Bratya Basu, SSC chairperson Siddhartha Majumder and the Chief Secretary, seeking an audience with them.
Published – May 19, 2025 11:42 pm IST
