Election Talks: Unemployed Teachers Engaged in Election Duty in Bengal

Kolkata: In the second round of voting in West Bengal, numerous teachers are engaged in election duty despite their appointments being canceled by the Calcutta High Court. It's worth mentioning that the court has canceled the appointments of over 26,000 teachers in the West Bengal teacher recruitment scam and has ordered the recovery of salaries and interest from them.

However, some teachers whose appointments were deemed invalid by the court have not been included in election duty. They say they are under mental stress and cannot work at polling stations.

The second phase of the general elections is taking place in the Darjeeling, Raiganj, and Balurghat Lok Sabha constituencies.

Some dismissed teachers say that although they are losing sleep at night, they cannot escape this responsibility. According to sources, around 300 teachers from the 2016 batch alone have been assigned election duty in Darjeeling district.

A female teacher said, "I am mentally shattered and unsure about the future of my job. But in the last two weeks, I received training to conduct elections and today I joined duty, considering it my responsibility. I got the job properly, and I believe I won't lose it in the end." Some teachers, considering their current situation, had requested the district election officer not to include them in election duty, but the administration did not listen to us.

Sources from the Chief Electoral Officer's office in Kolkata said they received orders on the evening of April 24. By that time, we had already sent polling teams because there are many remote areas in these three constituencies. We have no shortage of polling personnel, but in this phase, we have nothing to spare. We have to perform our duties without worrying about the situation of the polling teams. We are now seeking legal advice, and we hope the issue will be resolved in the next phase.