Protesting teachers clash with police as Bengal Global Business Summit concludes

Protestors clash with police in Kolkata over SSC recruitment scam, demanding segregation of worthy and unworthy candidates.

While the 8th Bengal Global Business Summit continued on Tuesday (February 4, 2025) in Kolkata’s New Town, around 20 kilometres away in the central hub of the city, protestors clashed with police while agitating against the threat to jobs of teachers who were “wrongfully targeted” in the case surrounding the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam.

For the unversed, the Supreme Court of India is currently hearing petitioners’ arguments concerning alleged irregularities in the SSC’s recruitment of teachers and non-teaching staff in 2016.

Last year, the Supreme Court stayed a Calcutta High Court order that cancelled nearly 26,000 job appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff from the SSC’s 2016 recruitment panel. While many 2016 aspirants claim they were deprived even after having met the cut-off to favour “unworthy candidates”, several 2016 recruits claim they are “worthy” and are being unfairly clubbed with those who secured jobs by alleged unfair means

However, since then, the fates of both parties have been equally uncertain, and both have demanded the segregation of worthy and unworthy candidates from the SSC’s 2016 recruitment panel before any drastic measures are taken. 

On Thursday morning, teachers who claim were ‘rightfully’ recruited in the 2016 panel, gathered near Maidan metro station in central Kolkata. They held a protest rally towards the Chief Minister’s residence in Kalighat to demand her intervention in ensuring that “worthy” and “unworthy” candidates are segregated. 

However, they were stopped by the police on alleged grounds of assembling without permission, leading to a scuffle between protestors and police personnel. The scuffle led to the detention of multiple protestors by the police, who were then put into prison vans. Police officials said that the traffic in the area was disrupted because of protests.

Many protestors alleged being manhandled by the police, and claimed that making a plea to the Chief Minister was their last resort in a situation that has left them “helpless and hopeless”.