Overview
- The state cabinet, which met Wednesday, approved a rule that teachers hired in state-run schools from now on cannot contest panchayat, municipal, Assembly or Lok Sabha elections while in service.
- Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said the restriction will be written into future West Bengal School Service Commission recruitment norms and will apply only to new recruits.
- Current teachers who already hold elected posts or are active in politics will be exempt from the new rule, the government said.
- The same cabinet meeting cleared about 1,199–1,200 additional government posts and set a November 5 date to formally unveil the state's new industrial policy.
- The government framed the change as a move to depoliticize classrooms and improve education quality, and the chief minister linked it to a broader accountability push that referenced the probe into former minister Indranil Sene.