Teachers Take to Streets After Job Terminations

In West Bengal, hundreds of teachers have protested at the state Education department office after the Supreme Court invalidated thousands of teaching appointments due to recruitment irregularities. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced temporary allowances through a new social security scheme for affected workers from April 2025.

Hundreds of school teachers, rendered jobless by a Supreme Court verdict, staged a protest on Thursday outside the state Education department office in Salt Lake, West Bengal. They demanded the reinstatement of their jobs, causing disruption to traffic in the area.

The protestors congregated at Bikash Bhavan, the office of the education minister, where police had erected barricades to control the crowd. The demonstrators attempted to breach these obstacles, voicing their demand for the restoration of their employment.

The Supreme Court confirmed a prior Calcutta High Court decision that voided the appointments of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff due to irregularities in the 2016 recruitment process. In light of a cash-for-jobs scandal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced temporary monthly allowances from a new livelihood scheme for affected Group C and Group D employees, which will commence in April 2025.

(With inputs from agencies.)