Sacked non-teaching school staff to get monthly allowance: CM Mamata Banerjee | Kolkata News

KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday announced a monthly payout for Group C and Group D staffers in govt-aided schools who lost their jobs following the Supreme Court order in the SSC recruitment case earlier this month.
While Group C staffers will each receive Rs 25,000 a month, Group D staffers will get Rs 20,000 a month each till the case is legally resolved. The special ex gratia will result in an expense of Rs 15.3 crore a month for the state.

The CM made the announcement after chief secretary Manoj Pant and other senior officials met representatives of Group C and Group D staffers at Nabanna. During the meeting, Banerjee spoke with the protesting staffers over the chief secretary’s phone and assured them that her govt was looking into their matter and a review petition would be filed before the Supreme Court soon.
“We have worked out the solution after consultation with the chief secretary, labour minister and lawyers. They (Group C and D staffers) have to tell me if they agree to it. The state govt has been making a similar ex-gratia payment of Rs 10,000 to Dunlop workers for many years,” Bannerjee said, adding that there will be no segregation on the basis of tainted and untainted as she had not received any list with evidence.
“We will go for a review of the SC order for everyone. We should be able to file the review petition for teachers and non-teaching staff by the first week of May. Legal advice is being taken. We will also try to ensure that they do not have to sit for tests again. If the Supreme Court rejects it entirely, we will look for an alternative route to protect the jobs without violating the law,” she said.
Partial relief for us: Group C & D staff
On an appeal by the state govt, the apex court had allowed ‘untainted’ teachers to work till Dec 31 to protect Class 9-12 students from disruption of studies but had refused the same for Group C and Group D staffers saying the number of appointees found tainted in this group was substantially higher.
According to data submitted in courts, 2,483 Group C and 4,550 Group D appointment letters were issued by the SSC under the 2016 recruitment panel.
Going by these numbers, the monthly payment to Group D staffers will amount to Rs 4.9 crore while that to Group D staffers will be Rs 9.1 crore.
Satyajit Dhar, a school clerk who lost his job, said, “My gross salary was Rs 35,000. This announcement is definitely a partial relief for all of us who have suddenly lost their govt jobs. However, this is an allowance and not salary.” He added: “Our primary demand that the state secure our jobs remains the same. We began our protests along with the jobless teachers, but now they are eligible to get their monthly salaries with benefits while we are only being given an allowance. This is painful for us but we have no other option.”
A section of teachers who lost their jobs and whose names are not on the list sent to district inspectors’ offices staged a sit-in outside state education minister Bratya Basu’s residence on Saturday demanding a meeting with him. Basu, however, was not at home at the time. They called off their demonstration after receiving assurances through police officials that an appointment for a meeting would be scheduled shortly.