THOUSANDS of people, all over West Bengal, are now on the streets demanding a thorough probe of the teacher appointment scam and corruption of the TMC ministry. That the scam was conducted in a planned manner by TMC leaders and ministers is out in the open now.

The state government has become paranoid. The ruling party is obsessed with shielding Mamata Banerjee. Sixteen people were arrested from south Kolkata even before a scheduled rally began. They included veteran theatre activist Bimal Chakraborty. Police did not allow two processions to move forward towards Hazra, where the chief minister’s residence is. However, hundreds marched through the streets, with CPI(M) state secretary Mohammad Salim leading them.

On August 1, a huge citizen’s march took place at the call of intellectuals. The march, besides condemning corruption, also demanded filling up the vacancies in a just and equitable manner. The rally was resplendent with placards against corruption and with slogans like ‘Chor Dhoro, Jail Bhoro’ (catch the thieves, put them in jail). Teachers, university professors, theatre activists, and cultural dignitaries joined the rally.  The rally was led by prominent educationist and linguist, Pabitra Sarkar, poet Mandakranta Sen, former vice-chancellor, Shubhankar Chakraborty, actor Jairaj Bhattacharya, actor Chandan Sen, advocate and Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, among others.

Left Front chairman, Biman Basu, Mohammad  Salim, CPI(M) Polit Bureau Member, Surjyakanta Mishra, CPI leader, Prabir Deb, RSP leader, Manoj Bhattacharya, Forward Bloc leader, Hafiz Alam Sairani, along with leaders of other left front constituent parties too joined the rally.

The rally started from Victoria House and ended at the Gandhi statue premises. Later at a rally here, Pabitra Sarkar held the TMC government responsible for the scam. In his speech, Bikashranjan Bhattacharya said that “Right after 2011, in every appointment to the state government posts – be it in education or to fire services or in other government posts – there has been corruption. Our aim is to take the scam to its logical conclusion on the fourteenth floor of Nabanna (civil secretariat) where the CM sits. More is going to come if this government has its way,” he said and called for taking the citizens' rally to the block, village and district levels of the state.

On  August 2, a massive rally took place in Siliguri which blocked roads for quite a long time.

At the call of AIKS, AIAWU people blocked roads throughout the state. National highways were blocked and the effigies of the corrupted minister were burnt.