Why job losers are insisting on publication of 'segregated' lists: CM Mamata

Kolkata, April 22 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday afternoon questioned why teaching and non-teaching staff in the state-run schools, who lost jobs following a Supreme Court order, were now insisting on the publication of the lists segregating the "genuine" and "tainted" candidates.

She raised this question while speaking at an administrative review meeting at Midnapore in the West Midnapore district.

While she raised this question, candidates were protesting outside the WBSSC office at Salt Lake in Kolkata.

"Why are you sitting amid this extreme heat? What purpose will the segregated lists of 'genuine' and 'tainted' candidates serve for you?" the Chief Minister questioned.

She also said: "It is for the state government and the court to consider who is 'genuine' and who is not."

"What do you all have to do with the list? Why are you getting trapped in provocation? There is no requirement for the lists," the Chief Minister said.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that some people in the state always "conspired" to ensure the termination of jobs by moving to court.

"They do not have any work, other than moving to the court and filing public interest litigations. We are providing jobs, and they are trying to terminate those jobs. There should always be a human face in politics," the Chief Minister said.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court upheld the order of the Calcutta High Court's division bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi last year, cancelling WBSSC's entire panel for 2016 of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching jobs.

The Apex Court also accepted the Calcutta High Court's observation that the entire panel had to be cancelled because of the state government and WBSSC's failure to segregate the "genuine" candidates from the "tainted" ones, who got jobs paying money.

Thereafter, at a meeting of a delegation of "genuine" candidates with state Education Minister Bratya Basu, the state government assured the publication of the "segregated" list.

--IANS

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