Congress hits streets over cancellation of 26,000 Bengal teaching jobs, demands CM resignation

Congress workers staged a protest in Kolkata on Monday over the cancellation of approximately 26,000 teaching jobs in West Bengal following a Supreme Court verdict. The court upheld previous orders that declared the 2016 School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment process illegal due to the absence of essential documents, particularly the OMR sheets. These sheets were crucial to determine the eligibility of candidates but were not produced by the state government or the SSC.

The OMR answer sheets were repeatedly sought by the lower courts, the Calcutta High Court, and the Supreme Court to verify the merit of the candidates. However, the West Bengal government and SSC informed the courts that the sheets had been destroyed. The responsibility for preserving these records rested with the SSC and the state education department. In the absence of the sheets, the court ruled that the entire batch of recruitments was invalid and ordered the termination of around 26,000 jobs.

Congress leaders alleged that the destruction of the OMR sheets led to mass dismissal, impacting both qualified and unqualified candidates. Protesters claimed that had the documents been preserved, only those who secured jobs through irregularities would have been removed. The party organised a demonstration outside the SSC office at 84 Sarat Bose Road, near the Beltala Motor Vehicles office, and temporarily blocked the road. They raised slogans demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and accountability for those responsible.

The SSC job cancellation adds to the list of corruption-related controversies in the state, which includes alleged irregularities in the 100-day rural employment scheme, ration distribution, municipal recruitment, and chit fund cases like Saradha and Narada. Congress stated that the protest was part of a broader campaign against recruitment-related irregularities and administrative failure in safeguarding public employment records.