A SECTION of teachers who lost their jobs following a Supreme Court judgement which held that the whole appointment process was tainted, on Thursday began a relay hunger strike outside the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) office in protest over the issue. Joining the protesters, BJP MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay who is a former judge of the Calcutta High Court, blamed the State administration and its wings for their plight. The teachers and other staff who lost their jobs said that they were also protesting police action against their compatriots at the district inspector (DI) of schools’ office at Kasba in south Kolkata on Wednesday.

 

“We started a relay hunger strike agitation with one teacher at the beginning and will soon chalk out further programme to protest the issue,” one of the protesters told reporters outside the SSC office at Salt Lake here. The agitating teachers have been holding a sit-in outside the SSC office building ‘Acharya Sadan’ since Wednesday night to protest the loss of jobs. The protesters alleged they were subjected to baton-charge and were even kicked and shoved around by law enforcement personnel during their agitation outside the DI office, situated beside Kasba police station of Kolkata Police.