Kolkata, May 22 (IANS) Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday, said that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the state government can only solve the crisis of “untainted” or “genuine” teachers losing jobs following a Supreme Court order last month by publishing lists segregating the “untainted” from the “tainted” ones and then approach the apex court with the segregated lists.

“What I heard is that the state government had filed a review petition at the apex court over its order last month cancelling 25,753 teaching and non-teaching jobs in the state-run schools in the state. In my opinion, any general review petition will not solve the crisis for those who have lost jobs. The state government, should instead, approach the court with the lists segregating the ‘untainted’ from the ‘tainted’ ones,” Adhikari told mediapersons.

The main demand of the protesting teachers is also the publication of segregated lists.

Later, while addressing the mediapersons at Siliguri in Darjeeling district, the leader of the opposition said that earlier there were two offices of West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) in north Bengal, one at Siliguri and one at Malda.

“The Chief Minister decided to close down both these offices. This reflects the Chief Minister’s apathy towards the people of North Bengal,” Adhikari said.

On April 3 this year, the Supreme Court upheld a previous order by the Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justice Debangshu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi cancelling 25,753 school jobs in West Bengal.

The apex court also accepted the observation of the Calcutta High Court that the entire panel of 25,753 candidates had to be cancelled because of the failure of the state government and the commission to segregate the “untainted” candidates from the “tainted” ones.

The state government and West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) had already filed review petitions at the apex court on this issue.

–IANS

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