Education minister Bratya Basu met teaching job aspirants who have been protesting on the Maidan for over one thousand days alleging irregularities in recruitments and both sides said after the two-hour meeting they were expecting a solution soon.
“I have sympathy for those who are protesting. As they have the right to protest, we have certain legal compulsions.... We are hopeful of resolving the situation at the earliest,” the minister told reporters after the meeting at Bikash Bhavan.
One of the seven protesters who met Basu said: “We are happy with this meeting. If these interactions keep taking place, we hope a solution will be worked out soon and we will return home with smiling faces.”
The minister said a second round of talks will be held on December 22.
Asked why December 22, the minister said: “The case (related to recruitments) is likely to be taken up by the Supreme Court by then. We want to see the progress of the case. Besides, the (protesters’) representatives wanted the meeting on December 22.”
A test for the selection of assistant teachers for Classes IX to XII in government-aided schools was last held in November 2016.
There were 12,905 vacant posts of assistant teacher for Classes IX and X and 5,711 for Classes XI and XII when the test was held.
A section of the candidates who had written the test has been recruited, but another section moved court alleging irregularities in the appointments.
Hundreds of such aggrieved candidates have been holding a sit-in on the Maidan alleging they had been unfairly denied jobs.
On Saturday, which marked the completion of 1,000 days of the sit-in, a woman demonstrator shaved her head as a mark of protest.
That day, Trinamul spokesperson Kunal Ghosh went to the protest site and his interaction with the protesters paved the way for Monday’s meeting.
Ghosh accompanied the students to Bikash Bhavan.
A protester said Ghosh was moved by the sight of the woman having her hair shaved in protest and went to the agitation site.
Minister Basu had on May 5, 2022, said the government had decided to create 5,261 additional teaching and non-teaching posts, which would be filled with candidates who had written recruitment tests conducted by the school service commission (SSC) in 2016.
“The posts have been created on humanitarian grounds following instructions from the chief minister,” Basu had said then.
On September 27, 2022, the minister said the SSC had filed an affidavit in the high court stating that the education department was ready to recruit “deserving” candidates as teachers by cancelling the appointments of those who had been “recruited under exceptional circumstances” without adhering to the merit list.
The affidavit had mentioned a second option, too: the government would appoint all the waitlisted candidates who were protesting on the Maidan by creating supernumerary (additional) posts.
The high court later directed a CBI probe into the purported motive behind an application filed before a single-judge bench seeking permission to create supernumerary posts and certain other moves with regard to the alleged illegal recruitment of teachers.
The Supreme Court had in November last year stayed the high court order.
Asked about the legality of the new posts, Basu said: “There was never a question about the legality of the posts. No such question arises now….”
“Mamata Banerjee can give jobs and Mamata Banerjee will give jobs,” the minister said.
Basu appealed to the protesters to withdraw their
agitation.