Thousands of sacked schoolteachers laid siege to the school service commission’s office in Salt Lake till late into Monday night, protesting the government’s failure to come out with a list segregating the tainted from those not “specifically tainted”.

They pledged to continue the siege until a resolution had been reached.

Senior commission officials were inside, with the protesters determined not to let them leave.

The junior doctors’ forum that led the protests after the rape and murder at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital last year pledged support to the aggrieved teachers close to midnight.

The latest stumbling block is the commission’s purported plan to publish a list of only those who had appeared in the first three rounds of counselling during the tainted recruitment process.

The SSC had conducted 12 rounds of counselling to appoint teachers for Classes IX to XII following the 2016 state-level selection test. But the fourth and subsequent rounds of counselling happened after the panel of candidates had expired, sources said.

According to the SSC’s norms, a panel is valid for up to a year. The first three rounds of counselling were held between December 2017 and August 2018.

The commission and the state secondary education board are wary of legal scrutiny if they include candidates who appeared in the 4th to 12th rounds, sources said.

One of the 17 reasons the apex court cited while ruling the entire recruitment process “vitiated” was that “appointments had been given to persons after expiry of the panel”.

The protesters were fuming at the three-round plan.

“Shoot us if you want, but we are not going to budge until our demand is met. We want one comprehensive list, segregating the tainted and untainted,” said Chinmoy Mondal, a spokesperson for the sacked teachers.

Mondal was part of a team of 13 representatives who had entered the SSC office for a meeting with the chairman. The team went in around 6pm and came out after 8pm.

“The meeting was not conclusive. The SSC chairman said the commission’s list could only accommodate candidates from the first three rounds of counselling. He said the candidates selected during the subsequent counselling would not receive salaries as they were tainted,” Mondal said.

Siddhartha Majumdar, the SSC chairman, could not be contacted. Sources said the commission was exploring all legal avenues.

Education minister Bratya Basu had on April 11 said the segregated list would be published by April 21 if legal counsel permitted.

Several reports on Monday had claimed the list would be published by 6pm.

As word about the commission’s dilemma spread, the huge crowd outside turned impatient. The teachers kept demanding that candidates from all the 12 rounds of counselling be considered for the list.

Some of the protesters tried to storm the SSC office around 6.15pm, amid a collective roar, and breached the first layer of police barricades. After reaching the threshold of the office, the crowd stayed put.

Earlier in the day, they had been assembled under the pillars of the upcoming New Garia-airport Metro corridor that overlooks Acharya Sadan, the SSC headquarters.

By 7pm, the protesters had laid siege to all the gates of the SSC office.

“We will not move; nor will we let anybody out,” a teacher shouted. “Chor, chor (Thieves, thieves),” the crowd roared, with hundreds beating empty bottles.

With the protesters taking over the stretch, the road was closed to traffic. As the night wore on, the slogans became more aggressive.

On April 3, the apex court had cancelled en masse the appointments of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching school staff, ruling that the entire 2016 selection process was “tainted beyond resolution”.

On April 17, it allowed the sacked but “not specifically found to be tainted” teachers to continue in their posts till December 31, by when a fresh recruitment process must be completed.

The state government and the school board had moved applications saying the sudden removal of thousands of teachers would cripple the school education system.

Bratya 'review'

Education minister Bratya Basu told TV channel ABP Ananda: "The list of the tainted and those not specifically found tainted could not be given as the Supreme Court did not say anything on this. We had said that if legal counsel permitted, the list could be published. Since the legal counsel did not permit, the list could not be published. We are going for a review petition soon.”