-Mita Mukjherjee

West Bengal education minister Bratya Basu on Monday met a delegation of School Service Commission (SSC) job aspirants and assured them that all those on the merit holders’ list will get their jobs, according to the members of the delegation.

Hundreds of SSC job aspirants have been holding a “dharna” for over 510 days near the Gandhi statue on Mayo Road in Kolkata demanding jobs and protesting irregularities in the teacher recruitment process.

Emerging from the meeting held in the education minister’s office at Bikash Bhavan in Kolkata, a member of the delegation, Sahidullah, described the talks as “positive” and said they were hopeful that their demand will be met.

The agitating job aspirants claimed that approximately 6000 merit-holders in the list of first SLST (state-level selection test) of 2016 have not got their jobs in Classes IX, X XI and XII in state aided schools across Bengal.

Education minister Basu, however, said after the meeting that the number of vacancies were not enough to provide jobs to all the  6000 candidates and therefore the government cannot give an assurance now that all the candidates would get their jobs.

According to Basu the SSC has been asked to prepare a list of the existing vacancies. New posts may be created if the number of vacancies are less than 6000.

But the decision to create the new posts will have to be finalized by the government. “ The education department will send the proposal to higher authorities for approval,” Basu said.

However, the agitators said that they will withdraw their “peaceful dharna” only after each and every candidate who has been deprived get their jobs.

 Basu had convened an emergency meeting with the agitating job aspirants today to discuss the ways to resolve issues related to teacher recruitment.  SSC chairman Siddhartha Majumdar and principal secretary Manish Jain were also present at the meeting today.

 “We have been fighting a long battle for justice. Approximately 6000 merit-list holders have been deprived of their rightful jobs. We are hopeful after today’s meeting that our demand will be solved. There were a lot of anomalies in the panel. Each and every candidate in the merit list should get the jobs. We will withdraw our agitation only after all the approximate 6000 candidates get their jobs,”  Sahidullah said after the meeting.

Trinamul Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee, along with education minister Bratya Basu, had earlier met the eight-member delegation of SSC job aspirants on July 29 and promised them that everything possible would be done to ensure jobs for all eligible candidates.

The July 29 meeting between Banerjee and the agitating job aspirants was held in the backdrop of the arrest of former education minister and senior Trinamul Congress leader Partha Chatterjee in connection with the alleged SSC scam that is being probed jointly by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI under the supervision of Calcutta High Court.

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