About 65 jobless teachers, staffs hold protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar

Kolkata: A group of 65 jobless school teachers and non-teaching staff from Bengal, who lost their jobs following a Supreme Court verdict, staged a three-hour sit-in demonstration at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on Wednesday afternoon, demanding justice and reinstatement. The protesters, claiming to be ‘untainted’, aimed to draw national attention to their plight.

The group began their journey from Kolkata on April 14 and reached the capital after more than 30 hours of travel. They held the protest from 2 pm to 5 pm, carrying placards in English and Hindi and raising slogans to highlight their demands.

“We have come to Delhi to let the people of the country know how unjustly we’ve been treated. Among the 26,000 affected, around 19,000 teachers and non-teaching staff like us are innocent, as there are no allegations against us. Yet we are being punished for someone else’s wrongdoing,” said Chinmay Mondal, one of the protesting teachers.

He further appealed to the Prime Minister, the President and MPs to intervene and urged the Chief Minister of West Bengal to take the necessary steps through the Supreme Court to ensure justice is served.

The demonstrators distributed Hindi leaflets en route to Delhi and at the protest site, hoping to garner public support. “We want the country to understand that we lost our jobs due to the actions of others. This protest is our way of raising awareness,” said another teacher.