The footpaths of Mayo Road in Kolkata have become a second home for teaching job seekers. For the last 500 days, a group of teachers have been demanding their ‘right to get jobs’. These candidates claim that their name was in the merit list but they could not get the jobs due to corruption and misconduct.
For the past 500 days, daily from 10 am to evening, these aspirants have been protesting by sitting on the footpath. After 500 days of his protests after the arrest of the former education minister and the recovery of huge sums of money from a close aide of the minister, he hopes he may see another day.
Shahidullah, who has been leading the protest for the past 500 days, told News18.com, “The arrest of the minister has proved that what we said is right, there is huge corruption in the recruitment of teachers. I know some candidates who have committed suicide. How long do we have to wait to get our jobs?”
Protesters claim that four of their candidates have died awaiting justice because they could not run their families and protest.
All India Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee will meet party representatives on Friday on the 500th day of the protest after the ruling party and the opposition wrote letters to most of the MPs and MLAs. The teacher applicant meeting is scheduled to be held in their office at 3:00 p.m.
Today, when he goes to meet Abhishek Banerjee, his demand is the same. They want jobs. The names of these candidates were in the merit list, but they did not get the jobs.
Shahidullah told News18, “He (Banerjee) called us yesterday around 2.45 pm, he told us that he will listen to us and try to solve our problem. We hope that something will be done.” It will happen. Every day 50 to 60 petitioners sit here and demand justice. Be it rain, storm, heat or corona, we are on the streets. After all this we hope that something will happen.
He first sat on the streets for 29 days in 2019. He was sitting in front of the Press Club, when Mamata Banerjee met him. For the second time in 2021, from January 30, he sat on the streets for 187 days. Then since October they have been protesting for their jobs.
Sushanto Ghosh, another teacher petitioner from Malda also comes to Kolkata to protest. Speaking to News18, Sushanto said, “This floor was all we had, we reached every quarter but got no response. We have a lot of respect for the judiciary and we still hope for justice.
Like Shahidullah, like Sushanto, all these petitioners have one thing in common, the passion to fight, the passion to protest against injustice.
Abhishek Banerjee said yesterday, “I have spoken to him and I will meet him on Friday, we will try to work out something, which we can request from the government.”
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