Didi Slams Job Terminations as 'Gross Injustice', Alleges BJP Conspiracy

Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday described the termination of 25, 573 state education department employees' jobs by the Calcutta High Court for graft in the School Service Commission recruitment scam as a "gross injustice."

The Trinamul Congress supremo also reiterated her blame on the BJP for engineering the mass termination to stop the affected state government employees from attending their duties in the ongoing Lok Sabha Election. 

Ms Banerjee told a poll campaign rally at Keshiary in West Midnapore, “If someone makes an error, it can be rectified. But termination of more than 25,000 jobs is a gross injustice. How will the schools function if so many teachers lose their jobs? It is a trick of the BJP. I respect the judiciary. But what happened is a gross injustice.”

She claimed, “These jobs were snatched so that the affected employees can not be sent to the poll-duty while the central government employees can be deputed to work at the behest of the saffron camp."

Meanwhile the HC has accepted a plea of a group of prominent lawyers seeking suo moto cognisance of the tirade by the CM against the judiciary in the last couple of days over the landmark order in the SSC jobs scam.

The lawyers included CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya who urged the division bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya to act against Ms Banerjee for her "contemptuous" remarks that the judiciary has been “sold out.”

Another lawyer Kaustav Bagchi, who switched from Congress to BJP in February, also submitted a similar appeal at the HC. He alleged "defamatory and malicious" comments by the CM on the judgment.

Two more lawyers also prayed for leave to file petitions with similar allegations which was granted by the division bench later. The day also witnessed a fresh charge by the TMC which circulated a video clip of Onda BJP MLA Amarnath Sakha and accused him of predicting termination of another 59,000 jobs by April