Teaching job aspirants detained for blocking road in Kolkata – India Today

By India Today Web Desk: Nearly 100 job aspirants blocked the road and demanded appointments in Kolkata. They have been detained by the Kolkata Police for blocking a thoroughfare without informing the authorities.

The protestors claimed that they have not been given teaching jobs in state-run and state-aided upper primary, secondary and higher secondary schools despite having qualified in the recruitment tests conducted by the School Service Commission (SSC).

ROAD WAS BLOCKED BY ASPIRANTS

The job aspirants blocked the road near Bikash Bhavan, the headquarters of the State Education Department. Police said that they were shouting slogans demanding immediate appointments in schools.

When they refused to clear the road, ignoring the requests, the police detained them.

“The protesters did not notify the authorities about their stir and blocked the road around noon. We have reports they had plans to march toward Bikash Bhavan. They were detained and taken into waiting vehicles to the police station and later released,” the officer said.

One of the placards read, “We are being physically manhandled for raising our rightful demand to get a job.”

ANOTHER PROTEST IN CITY

Meanwhile, some of the job aspirants staged sit-in protests on the side of Mayo Road in the heart of the city. They have been protesting for 594 days.

For the unversed, Former West Bengal Education minister Partha Chatterjee, former SSC Chairman Subiresh Bhattacharya, former SSC advisor Shantiprasad Sinha and former president of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education Kalyanmoy Ganguly were arrested in a probe related to teacher appointment irregularity scam.

These scams were being conducted in state-run and state-aided secondary, and higher secondary schools.

(Inputs from PTI)