Chief minister Mamata Banerjee claimed if she had been in Kolkata she would have solved the imbroglio over the dismissed schoolteachers “in a second.”

At the inauguration of a power plant in Midnapore's Goaltore Tuesday, the chief minister said, “I have called our people in Kolkata at least 10 times since last evening. If I had been there I could have solved the issue in a second. Till midnight I held conversations over phone. What I understand is some people are still being adamant that the list of the “tainted” and “untainted” have to be segregated.”

“Why are you bothered who is tainted, who is untainted? The government, the court is looking into it. We will seek evidence from the court. You should be concerned about your job and your salary. In Uttar Pradesh 69,000 schoolteachers lost their jobs. No one was reinstated. In Tripura, the BJP promised 10,000 sacked teachers they will get back their jobs. Not one teacher has got his or her job back. We are unlike them. I am telling you, you will get your jobs back,” Mamata said.

A section of the dismissed teaching and non-teaching staff in the state-run and state-aided schools have been in sit-in outside Acharya Sadan, the office of the school service commission demanding the release of the list as they had been promised earlier.

Around 25,753 schoolteachers and non-teaching staff from the 2016 panel were dismissed by the Supreme Court on April 3, which upheld an earlier Calcutta high court order, and stated the recruitment process was vitiated.

The Supreme Court later allowed the schoolteachers to return to their classroom while instructing the Mamata Banerjee government to complete the recruitment process by December 31.

But the group-C and group-D staff, who were recruited through the same panel, were not reinstated.

The state government has decided to file a review petition in the apex court against the Supreme Court verdict.

On April 7, the chief minister assured the dismissed teachers they would continue to receive their salaries and asked them to return to the classrooms.

“Why are the teachers squatting on the road in this heat? Return to your classes,” Mamata said in Goaltore. “The issue of the dismissed group-C and D staff is being looked into.”

Mamata reiterated the blame of the dismissal on the Opposition’s door.

“Don’t believe those who snatched your jobs. Trust me. I don’t want to see any unemployed person in my state. They have filed another case on primary teachers’ recruitment,” she said.

State education minister Bratya Basu assured the teachers and other dismissed staff the chief minister was looking into the issue with compassion.

“We lost in the Supreme Court. Everybody knows who won. On the chief minister’s instruction the education department is working towards their reinstatement,” Basu said.

In Goaltore, the chief minister has also said that she will visit Murshidabad in the first week of May.

The Opposition had questioned her absence from the violence torn district on Monday.