Bengal: Doctors protesting on RG Kar issue join protests of sacked school teachers

Kolkata, April 10 (IANS) Doctors protesting on RG Kar issue joined the protest demonstrations of sacked school teachers in Kolkata on Thursday.

The sacked employees organised the protest rally in central Kolkata, demanding immediate action by the state government and West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) in segregating “genuine” candidates from “tainted” ones and also condemning the police assault on the protesting employees in the city on Wednesday.

The medical fraternity representatives claimed that the demand of the sacked school teachers to ensure the segregation was justified since the apex court division bench Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar.

The pex court, last week, upheld an earlier order by Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi to cancel a total of 25,753 appointments made by the WBSSC on grounds on failure on part of the state government and the commission to segregate “genuine” candidates from “tainted”.

Actor Badshah Moitra, a known face in social movements, also participated in the protest rally.

He said that this development is not just a loss for the sacked school teachers but also for the entire education system in the state.

“As it is, the teacher-to-student ratio in West Bengal is not satisfactory. Unfortunately, such a crisis has surfaced because of the corruption in the system and incapability of the administration in preventing that corruption,” Moitra said.

A section of the protesting sacked school teachers has already started a relay hunger strike in front of WBSSC’s office at Salt Lake in the northern outskirts of Kolkata from Wednesday.

A group of junior doctors organised a similar hunger strike last year on the R.G. Kar issue.

--IANS

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