India News | TET Candidates Sit-in Enters 4th Day, Agitators' Ranks Swell
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The indefinite sit-in by agitating Teacher Eligibility Test candidates here demanding immediate recruitment of those who had qualified in 2014 but whose names were absent from the merit list entered its fourth day on Thursday.
Kolkata, Oct 20 (PTI) The indefinite sit-in by agitating Teacher Eligibility Test candidates here demanding immediate recruitment of those who had qualified in 2014 but whose names were absent from the merit list entered its fourth day on Thursday.
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Their numbers increased as the 500-odd 2014 agitating TET candidates were joined during the day by around 100 candidates of the 2017 batch, who too claimed to have qualified in the test but were overlooked in the panel which was prepared after two rounds of interview.
BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar visited the sit-in venue and expressed solidarity with the agitating candidates.
The protestors have turned down the requests of the state Education minister Bratya Basu and the president of West Bengal Board of Primary Education Goutam Pal to withdraw the agitation and sit for fresh test and interview.
The agitation is being held near the office of the Board in the city.
"The government cannot ask these young men and women, who had cleared the tests and interviews but were overlooked by the corrupt former office-bearers of the board in 2014 and 2017, to start the process afresh. They are now older and some of them will not be eligible to sit for the test any more. Why should they suffer for the misdeeds of the government?" Majumdar told reporters.
The state government should show flexibility and hold talks with the agitating TET candidates, he said.
BJP, if it comes to power in the state, will correct the anomalies and ensure that all qualifying candidates are recruited at the earliest, Majumdar said.
One of the agitators told reporters, "If we go through the entire process of written test and interview again, how can it be ensured that we will not be discriminated against again?
Pal, who has been repeatedly calling for the withdrawal of the agitation, said that the Board cannot directly recruit the TET 2014 candidates if their names do not figure in the panel and asked them to sit for the tests and interviews again.
"How can we take candidates from outside the panel merit list? The board will not be in a position to accede to such pleas," he said.
About reports that eligible TET candidates were deprived of jobs while undeserving ones were chosen during the tenure of his predecessors, Pal said, "The matter is being investigated and as per the directive of the (Calcutta) high court. Several candidates have already been recruited."
The Board president said, "We are ensuring transparency and fairness in the recruitment process. I urge the agitators to have faith in us and withdraw the sit-in, which is disrupting the functioning of the Board".
Meanwhile, the Jadavpur University Teachers Association has pledged support to the protesting TET candidates of 2014.
"We are on their side. We demand that each and every TET-qualified person be given jobs," JUTA general secretary Partha Pratim Roy said.
West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu has claimed that some political parties want the impasse to continue for their narrow gains.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)