Teachers start relay hunger strike to protest job loss, police action
Kolkata (PTI): A section of teachers who lost their jobs following a Supreme Court judgment which held that the whole appointment process was tainted, on Thursday began a relay hunger strike outside the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) office in protest over the issue.
Joining the protesters, BJP MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay who is a former judge of the Calcutta High Court, blamed the state administration and its wings for their plight.
The teachers and other staff who lost their jobs said that they were also protesting police action against their compatriots at the district inspector (DI) of schools' office at Kasba in south Kolkata on Wednesday.
"We started a relay hunger strike agitation with one teacher at the beginning and will soon chalk out further programme to protest the issue," one of the protesters told reporters outside the SSC office at Salt Lake here.
The agitating teachers have been holding a sit-in outside the SSC office building 'Acharya Sadan' since Wednesday night to protest the loss of jobs and police action against their compatriots.
The protesters alleged they were subjected to baton-charge and were even kicked and shoved around by law enforcement personnel during their agitation outside the DI office, situated beside Kasba police station of the Kolkata Police.
Noting that the police have lodged cases against the protesting teachers over Wednesday's protest at Kasba, Gangopadhyay said that this should not have been done.
"Cases have been lodged against innocent teachers who lost their jobs for the illegal acts of others," the BJP MP told reporters.
Maintaining that he had not gone to meet Education Minister Bratya Basu on Wednesday in protest against the police action, he said that the BJP leadership was with him in his decision.
Gangopadhyay said that he, along with former Rajya Sabha MP Rupa Ganguly, came to the protest site at Acharya Sadan to express solidarity with the teachers and other staff who lost their jobs.
Gangopadhyay, as a judge of the Calcutta High Court, had ordered a CBI investigation in November 2021 into alleged irregularities in the recruitment process.
He had also ordered the termination of more than 25,000 jobs of teaching and non-teaching staff in West Bengal government-run and -aided schools after finding irregularities in the process.
This order was upheld by a division bench of the high court and thereafter by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court on April 3 upheld a 2024 Calcutta High Court judgment annulling the recruitment of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff appointed through a recruitment drive by SSC in 2016, terming the entire selection process "vitiated and tainted".
Those who were rendered jobless claimed that the reason behind their plight was the inability of the SSC to differentiate between the candidates who secured employment through fraudulent means and those who did not.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee and some others, who held positions in the state's SSC when the irregularities in the recruitment process took place.
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Fact-Check: Rare solar halo in Saudi Arabia mistaken for 'doomsday' in viral video
Riyadh: A viral video is circulating on social media shows a solar halo over Saudi Arabia, with the person filming claiming it to be a sign of the approaching ‘doomsday’
In the purported video the person filming the clip is seen claiming that this solar display looks like it's the arrival of doomsday, its nearing, everyone offer prayers as doomsday is nearing, he is heard saying in Malayalam.
However the viral claim is fake, as the solar display is a rare solar halo.
However, fact-checking reveals that the claim is false. The phenomenon is actually a rare and natural atmospheric event known as a solar halo.
On Thursday morning, residents of Aseer in Saudi Arabia were treated to a breathtaking celestial display as a rare solar halo formed a perfect, translucent ring around the sun, drawing widespread attention, reported Arab News.
Quoting Dr. Abdullah Al-Musa, a researcher and agricultural calendar specialist in the Asir region, Arab News report stated that this optical phenomenon occurs when ice crystals in high-altitude clouds align at a 22-degree angle, creating a striking ring of light around the sun. The effect, sometimes accompanied by rainbow-like colors due to light dispersion, is a result of sunlight interacting with tiny ice crystals in cirrostratus clouds, as reported by Arab News.
In the meantime, Dubai-based English daily Khaleej Times reported a similar phenomenon in the UAE, where on Saturday afternoon, a luminous 22-degree halo encircled the sun.
Ibrahim Al Jarwan, Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Emirates Astronomical Society, speaking to Khaleej Times explained that this optical phenomenon occurs when sunlight refracts through ice crystals in thin, high-altitude clouds like cirrus clouds.
The sun halos reportedly occur when sunlight passes through millions of tiny hexagonal ice crystals found in high cirrostratus clouds. The 22° angle refers to the angular radius of the ring around the sun, not the angle at which the light refracts.
Meanwhile the halo led many questions about its possible link to recent solar storms. However, Khadija Al Hariri, operations manager at the Dubai Astronomy Group, told the Khaleej Times that, "Sun halos are caused by ice crystals in Earth's atmosphere bending sunlight. Solar storms are caused by activity on the sun like solar flares and coronal mass ejections that send charged particles toward Earth, potentially affecting satellites, power grids, and creating auroras."
She further explained, "This phenomenon is rare in the UAE because it's usually too hot and dry for the high-altitude ice crystals needed to form a sun halo. It doesn’t have any direct impact on the sun or space activity, it's purely a local atmospheric observation."
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