Kolkata, May 27 (IANS) Protesting teachers termed as a "death sentence" West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Tuesday announcement that the "untainted" teachers, who had lost their jobs following a Supreme Court order in connection with the cash-for-job case, will have to appear afresh in a written examination for recruitment, while the opposition parties described it as "self-contradictory".

After the Chief Minister gave the clarification at a press conference, the "untainted" teachers protesting near the State Education Department headquarters at Salt Lake expressed their frustration, saying that ultimately they would have to suffer because of the state government's adamancy in refraining from publishing the lists segregating the "untainted" candidates from the "tainted" ones getting school jobs by paying money.

"Why would we suffer because of the corrupt method adopted by 'tainted' candidates in getting jobs? The state government will have to take the onus. Had the state government scrapped the jobs of 'tainted' candidates at the very beginning or had at least published the segregated list, we would not have such a day," said Chinmay Mondal, one of the protesting "untainted" teachers.

On April 3, while upholding the earlier order by the Calcutta High Court that annulled 25,753 school appointments made through the WBSSC, the Supreme Court also accepted the observation of the High Court that the entire panel had to be scrapped due to the authorities' failure to distinguish between "tainted" and "untainted" candidates.

On Chief Minister Banerjee's clarification that the "untainted" teachers will have the opportunity to get jobs through a fresh examination, another "untainted" teacher said what is the guarantee that they would qualify again.

"We got our jobs by properly qualifying in the examination a few years ago after proper preparations for the same. After that, we concentrated on our teaching jobs. Now we have been asked to appear for the same examination again. This is a gross injustice. We have already proved ourselves as qualified once, and why will we have to prove our qualification again?" asked another "untainted" teacher.

CPI-M Politburo member and the state Secretary, Mohammad Salim, said that the Chief Minister's clarification was self-contradictory.

"Soon after the Supreme Court last month, the Chief Minister claimed that she would protect the jobs for all. Now she is claiming that all will have to appear for a fresh examination because of the Supreme Court order. Had she honoured the court orders, the state government would have published the segregated list when both the Calcutta High Court and the apex court asked for it," he said.

Leader of the Opposition (LoP), Suvendu Adhikari, claimed that since the beginning, the only aim of Chief Minister Banerjee was to protect the interests of the "tainted" candidates rather than protecting the jobs of the "untainted" ones.

"Since the beginning, the Chief Minister has been in a misleading mode. I expected the Chief Minister to publish the segregated list of 'untainted' and 'tainted' candidates this afternoon. Instead, she pronounced the death sentence for the 'untainted' teachers," the BJP leader said.

--IANS

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