Kolkata, Aug 17 (PTI) A section of members of the Deserving Teachers' Rights Forum, a platform of West Bengal's school teachers rendered jobless by the April 3 Supreme Court order, on Sunday gave call
for a march to WBSSC headquarters on August 18, demanding that the council take an initiative to end the legal wrangle and with that, the sufferings of "untainted" teachers.
One of the members of the forum, allegedly under tremendous mental stress, died of cerebral arrest on August 5.
However, a senior police official said that no permission for the rally has been given and the force is in possession of an audio clip in which a forum member was heard telling another to carry crude bombs, petrol and stone chips and attack policemen present along the rally's proposed 600 metre route from Karunamayee Crossing to the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) head quarters in Salt Lake.
Rejecting the charge, one of the Forum's executive committee members Suman Biswas said the march has been called in the backdrop of the death of school teacher Subal Soren at a private hospital in Kolkata due to hypertension since he lost his job along with nearly 26,000 other teaching and
non-teaching staff by the Supreme Court verdict which termed the entire recruitment process of 2016 SSC as "vitiated and tainted".
"We have no intention to take the law into our hands. So far, all our movements have been peaceful despite police baton charge. On August 18, in memory of our deceased colleague and demanding that the state and Council initiate steps for early resolution of the SSC imbroglio and reinstate all the untainted teachers by December 31, we will rally from Karunamoyee to Acharya Sadan (the WBSSC headquarters) and demonstrate peacefully," Biswas told reporters.
The Supreme Court on Thursday extended till December 31 the services of terminated teachers found untainted by the CBI which investigated the case. The court also directed the SSC to complete the recruitment process by that day.
He said a delegation will meet WBSSC Chairman Siddhartha Majumdar at 3 pm on August 18 to discuss their demand and to assert again their refusal not to appear for any recruitment test again to get the job.
However, in a hurriedly called press meet, Deputy Commissioner of Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate Anish Sarkar said, "We have got an audio clip containing a phone conversation between two persons, who claimed to be associated with the Deserving Jobless Teachers Rights Forum, on storing stone chips in bag, carry crude bombs, petrol cans and socket bombs and gas lighters to attack police personnel present at the rally before SSC."
Sarkar said police also saw a social media post sent by Biswas and a mail to the Biddhanagar Commissioner of Police seeking permission to hold the rally.
"In view of a recent Calcutta High Court order which prohibited assembly of people before state education headquarters Bikash Bhavan and along the stretch, we could not grant permission for the rally. We urge the protesting teachers to stage their demonstration at the designated spot at Central Park in Karunamoyee. We also urge the peace loving, majority teacher protestors not to fall into the trap of mischief makers who try to create law and order problems in the name of protest," he said.
Another member of the forum Mehboob Mondal, however, said no call for any such march has been given and alleged that the police were building up a false narrative to blame the movement.
"No call for a march to SSC has been officially given by the forum. If any individual has issued any such call on social media, that is his or her own decision. In fact, this is an alibi of the police to shift the blame to the forum which had never wavered from the path of peaceful, democratic protest despite being beaten up by the police for their rightful demand for reinstatement," he added.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had announced 44,203 vacancies - the majority of them teachers - would be filled up in the fresh recruitment process, which the Supreme Court has ordered must be completed before December 31, 2025. PTI SUS NN
