W.B. school recruitment crisis: Mamata offers aid to non-teaching staff, but protesters refuse to budge-OxBig News Network

Staying put: Teachers and non-teaching staff, whose appointments were invalidated by the Supreme Court recently, stage a protest in front of West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) office, in Kolkata. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

Kolkata The West Bengal government on Saturday offered a monthly honorarium to non-teaching employees of State-run schools and urged them to end their strike. However, the protesters said they will continue the stir, which started on April 21, until the government issues a list of “tainted” and “untainted” employees.

Also read: Teachers pause sit-in outside WBSSC office; non-teaching staff to continue their protest

Hundreds of Group C and D non-teaching employees have been camping outside the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) office in Kolkata’s Salt Lake area after losing their jobs following a Supreme Court order earlier this month.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee joined on phone a meeting between Chief Secretary Manoj Pant and eight representatives of the non-teaching staff at Nabanna, the State Secretariat, and announced an honorarium of Rs. 25,000 for Group C employees and Rs. 20,000 for Group D employees.

“Families are in trouble, people have old parents… We can find a way out by paying an honorarium after consulting all the stakeholders,” said the CM.

She added that until the State government files a review petition in the Supreme Court and gets the final verdict, non-teaching employees will continue to receive the monthly honorarium. Ms. Banerjee said her government will not discriminate between “tainted” and “untainted” employees as the matter is “sub judice”.

Amit Mondal, one of the representatives who attended the meeting, told The Hindu , “Those who have been on hunger strikes have refused to break their fast and call off the protest. Yes, the honorarium will help run our families for the time being, but we wanted an official list of ‘tainted’ and ‘untainted’ candidates. The government did not do that.”

The background

In its April 3 order, the Supreme Court upheld a Calcutta High Court decision to cancel the recruitment of nearly 26,000 teachers and non-teaching staff due to irregularities in the selection process. While the apex court subsequently allowed “untainted” teachers to continue working until year-end, non-teaching employees were offered no such reprieve.On April 21, teachers and non-teaching employees started the protest outside the WBBSE demanding the official list of “tainted” and “untainted” workers. On Thursday, the government released lists of “untainted” teachers and a day later, the teachers called off their protest. However, the non-teaching staff have continued their strike and continue to press the government to issue a similar list, which would help the “untainted” to reclaim their jobs.