Dozens of education department employees from Group C and Group D categories staged a sit-in protest outside the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) headquarters in Salt Lake on Wednesday, demanding the immediate release of the certificate verification list for qualified candidates.

Organised under the banner of Odhikar Mancha, the demonstrators marched from Karunamoyee to the SSC office, calling for an urgent meeting with the SSC chairperson to press their demands.

“We want the SSC to publish, without further delay, the certificate list of 3,394 candidates who have already been declared eligible,” said one of the protestors. Of these, 1,255 belong to Group C and 2,139 to Group D, according to the organisation.

These employees are among the 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff who lost their jobs earlier this year after the Supreme Court annulled the entire 2016 recruitment panel, citing widespread irregularities. The court order, issued on 3 April, led to the immediate termination of thousands from state-sponsored and aided schools.

Those impacted allege that the SSC failed to distinguish between candidates who were legitimately appointed and those who gained employment through fraudulent means.

“We are not involved in any corruption. It was the Commission’s failure to conduct proper verification. We demand immediate reinstatement of all eligible employees who were unfairly dismissed,” another protestor stated. “The SSC must provide a written assurance and submit the verified list to the Supreme Court, in accordance with legal procedures.”

The demonstrators further demanded that the Commission upload all scanned OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) answer sheets — seized during the CBI investigation — on its official website to promote transparency.

“Making the OMR sheets publicly accessible will help rebuild public trust in the recruitment system,” a protestor added.

As the agitation continues, pressure is mounting on the SSC to respond promptly and take corrective action to address the grievances of the affected staff.

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