Return to schools, resume duty voluntarily: Mamata to those who lost jobs in schools

PTI, KOLKATA, APRIL 7, 2025 : Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday assured full support to eligible candidates who lost school jobs following a Supreme Court order, asserting that her government will ensure they don't remain jobless or have a break in service.

Speaking at a meeting of school job losers at the Netaji Indoor Stadium here, Mamata urged the affected teachers and staff to return to their respective schools and “voluntarily” resume duties. The apex court had, on April 3, invalidated the appointment of 25,753 teachers and staffers in state-run and aided schools in Bengal who were selected through a state School Service Commission recruitment drive in 2016, calling the entire selection process "vitiated and tainted."

The Chief Minister also assured the aggrieved teachers that she would make alternative arrangements for all deserving candidates “within two months.”

“You can return to your schools and voluntarily resume teaching. You are still in service since no termination letter has been served to you yet. Our government is duty-bound to ensure that no deserving candidate loses a job. We have plans ready to ensure that the eligible candidates do not face any break in service. We will not allow them to remain jobless,” Mamata said at the meeting, where thousands of affected teachers had turned up.

“I will stand by those who lost their jobs in an unjust manner. I don’t care what others think. I will do everything to restore your dignity,” she said.

Asserting that the state government respects the Supreme Court ruling, Mamata said the administration is taking proactive steps to handle the situation with "utmost care and fairness". While confirming that her government will move a review petition on the apex court judgment and “seek clarifications” on the April 3 ruling from the bench concerned, the Chief Minister outlined a two-phase plan to “restore the jobs” of those whose appointments were annulled by the top court.

“In the first phase, we will look into the details of the deserving candidates and take all steps necessary to give them back the jobs they have lost,” the Chief Minister said. “In phase two, we will take up the cases of the so-called tainted candidates. We will dig deep into why they were branded as ‘undeserving’, the grounds on which they were found tainted, and how the investigations that found them guilty were conducted. I will hold a separate meeting with them,” the CM said.

Mamata appealed to the aggrieved teachers to “trust” the government in doing its job and said there should be no face-offs between the “deserving” and “tainted” candidates.

The Chief Minister also claimed that her name was being dragged into something about which she had “no inkling”, referring to discrepancies in the school job appointments.

“I am ready to even go to jail if anyone wants to penalize me for standing with those who lost school jobs,” she asserted.

“One should figure out the real faces from the masks because many are now trying to mislead people with false information. There is a conspiracy to break the entire education system. A dirty game is being played by some people," she said, in an apparent reference to the opposition BJP and the CPM.

Stating that she was never vindictive against the erstwhile ruling CPI(M) appointees in schools despite the alleged “large-scale recruitment corruption” during the previous Left Front regime, Banerjee lashed out at the red brigade for taking the matter to court.

“I have never knowingly taken a job away from anyone, not even from the CPM because my slogan back then was ‘No Revenge, Only Change’. Yet, lawyers of the party like Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya moved court to ensure so many people lose jobs. He must answer,” she said.

Several "eligible" teachers whose jobs were recently annulled by the Supreme Court were allegedly denied entry to the Chief Minister's meeting, triggering chaos outside the venue over the distribution of passes. The affected candidates, many of whom said they had approached the courts to seek justice, claimed they were not provided with entry passes — a must to enter the stadium.

"There was no transparency in the distribution of passes. We came hoping to speak to the Chief Minister, but we were left standing outside," said an aggrieved teacher who did not wish to be named.

Police detained a youth accused of snatching passes from some teachers. He was taken away in a police van, even as many of the demonstrators demanded an explanation for the "lack of communication and fairness."

"Passes were checked and then allowed entry. A lot of people turned up. No one knows who gave those passes and on what basis," a teacher said.

Distribution of passes was reportedly overseen by the 'Yogyo Shikshak-Shikshika Adhikar Mancha', a forum representing the eligible candidates who had filed petitions in court.