Court order & CBI probe give us hope: Protesting teaching job aspirants

“The merit list was published without the marks. That’s where the corruption started. The commission violated the gazette by not publishing the full merit list — along with scores of written, academic and personality tests) post-interview. Second and third list candidates were called in for interviews without interviewing the first list candidates. The corruption in the recruitment of teachers by the West Bengal Central School Service Commission has been at every stage,” said Ilias Biswas, a protester. “We are happy that the faces behind this corruption are finally being exposed. We will be fully satisfied after joining schools,” he added.

Soma Das, a blood cancer patient, who is known among her friends for her fighter spirit, too, welcomed the court’s order. “Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay has called me after hearing that I am suffering from blood cancer and has been fighting to get a job. My father is unemployed, and my mother is an Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) worker. She somehow runs the family. When I had cleared this examination, there was hope in my family that things would now change for the better. But people with influential backgrounds and money took away our much-deserved jobs. I will fight till the last breath,” said Das. “CM Mamata Banerjee and then education minister Partha Chatterjee had visited us and assured no one from the merit list would be deprived of a job, but that turned out to be just hollow words. We are still without jobs and have been protesting on the footpath for the past six years,” says Shibani Kuity Roy.