Abhishek Banerjee tries to pacify SSC job aspirants : CPM, BJP question TMC MP’s right to promise justice to job seekers

The dharna by SSC job aspirants on Mayo Road in Calcutta on Friday.

Joyjit Ghosh   |   TT  |  Calcutta   |   30.07.22  :  Trinamul Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee, along with education minister Bratya Basu, on Friday met an eight-member delegation of School Service Commission job aspirants and purportedly assured them of doing everything possible to ensure that eligible people were employed as teachers.

Emerging from the meeting held in Abhishek’s office at Camac Street in Calcutta, a member of the delegation, Sahidullah, described the talks as “positive”.

“Abhishekbabu assured us that he wanted to end our pain with a humanitarian approach and do whatever was possible to ensure that those on the first SLST (state-level selection test) merit-holders’ list of 2016 got their jobs as high school teachers,” Sahidullah said.

The delegate added that Abhishek had flagged a few legal issues and the job aspirants would meet Bratya and SSC chairperson Siddhartha Majumdar on August 8 to take forward the process of “delivering justice”.

Asked whether the job aspirants would withdraw their agitation after Friday’s meeting, Sahidullah refused to comment.

Hundreds of SSC job aspirants have been holding a dharna for over 500 days near the Gandhi statue on Mayo Road in Calcutta.

Friday’s meeting was held in the backdrop of last week’s arrest of education minister and senior Trinamul leader Partha Chatterjee in connection with the alleged SSC scam that is being probed jointly by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI under the supervision of Calcutta High Court.

Following Chatterjee’s arrest and seizure of over  Rs 48 crore from properties linked to his close associate Arpita Mukherjee, Abhishek contacted Sahidullah on Thursday evening and sought a meeting with the SSC job aspirants on Friday.

Opposition parties questioned Abhishek’s locus standi in addressing the issues raised by the job aspirants.

Abhishek, the nephew of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, is the all-India general secretary of Trinamul and represents Diamond Harbour in the Lok Sabha.

“They (the job aspirants) weren’t called to Nabanna or the education department. They were called to a private limited company’s office at Camac Street. This could be their strategy to create a rift among job aspirants. Earlier, some of them had been bought and made part of this corruption. What the agitators and every one of us want is that they be given appointment letters and all vacancies filled up with total transparency,” CPM state secretary Md Salim said.

The BJP asked whether Abhishek was “bigger than the chief minister”.

“Who is he (Abhishek)? What role does he have in the government? He might be the successor to his party leader but he has no authority to make such promises. What had been he and his party doing for the past eight years? The CM had also made similar promises but failed to deliver. Is he bigger than the CM that he will be able to deliver?” asked BJP spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya.

Trinamul spokesperson Kunal Ghosh, who accompanied the SSC aspirants’ delegation to Abhishek’s office, confirmed that the Trinamul leader had listened to Sahidullah and his team with “patience”.

While the meeting was on at the Camac Street office, around 200 primary TET (Teachers’ Eligibility Test) aspirants gathered outside for an audience with Abhishek.

“We are also victims of a recruitment scam. We have been fighting a long battle for justice and will leave this place only after meeting Abhishek. We are over 7,500 merit-list holders who have been deprived of their rightful jobs. We demand that our issue be solved, along with that of the SSC job aspirants,” said a primary TET aspirant.

Calcutta police officers met the primary TET aspirants and sought a memorandum that would be handed over to Abhishek.

Turning down the offer of the police, a primary TET aspirant of the 2012 batch said: “In the past two years, we heard too many promises and handed over several memoranda. Nothing has happened. We want Abhishek to meet us and hear how we have been deprived of our jobs. We demand our rightful jobs and nothing less.”