Kolkata, Oct 29 (IANS) The CPI(M) leadership has decided to challenge any move by the West Bengal government to bar teachers recruited henceforth in the state-run schools from contesting any election for panchayats, municipal bodies, Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies.
The challenge by the CPI(M) leadership comes amid an announcement by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Wednesday, saying that a new clause will be introduced in the recruitment rules of the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) barring would-be teachers from contesting polls.
A proposal on this count was cleared at a meeting of the state cabinet on Wednesday. However, the Chief Minister, at the same time, made it clear that the clause will not be applicable to those serving teachers who are already elected public representatives.
Reacting to the Chief Minister’s announcement on this count, former CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member and senior advocate, Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya, said once this proposal is formally implemented in the recruitment rules of the WBSSC, he will take up the matter legally.
“It will not be easy to suppress the democratic rights of the common people. Any attempt to do this will be opposed legally,” said Bhattacharya, also the former Mayor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).
He also said that the decision to bar teachers from contesting the polls is unconstitutional. “So let the decision be officially implemented. I will take up the matter at the Calcutta High Court,” said Bhattacharya.
Even a section of the service teachers has opposed the idea and claimed that they do not subscribe to the Chief Minister’s argument that the move to bar would-be teachers from contesting polls is aimed at depoliticising the education sector.
“Had the Chief Minister been serious about depoliticising the sector, he would have removed political persons from different education-related committees. But that did not happen. The laws and regulations related to education in West Bengal do not prevent schoolteachers from engaging in active politics. If this decision is implemented without changing that law, there will be obstacles from the legal angle,” said a headmaster of a state-run higher secondary school, who refused to be named.
–IANS
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