There had been massive irregularities in recruitment of 46,000 candidates during the CPM-led Left Front (LF) regime in Bengal. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had made this startling finding in its report in 2009-2010.

The state education minister Bratya Bose while speaking to reporters at a press conference said this citing the CAG report on Friday, a day after the former education minister Partha Chatterjee on Thursday levelled charges of corruption related to recruitment of 46,000 candidates during the Left regime in the state. It has been clearly mentioned in the CAG report. But our government never made it an issue. Does it mean that it’s our weakness?” Bratya said.

While reacting to the controversial appointment of the CPM central committee member Sujan Chakraborty’s wife, the education minister, said, “After talking to the chief minister we would decide whether an inquiry would be conducted to probe her appointment in group C post in the Dinabandhu Andrews College. CPM is making a negative campaign against our government as well as the party on recruitment issues. Do they think that there was no corruption in recruitment process of teachers and other staff in schools during their regime?”

The Trinamul Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh alleged on Thursday that Sujan’s wife had secured her job at Dinabandhu Andrews College in south Kolkata through unfair means. The governing body of the college had proposed her name and she got the appointment letter from the college principal Haraprasad Samaddar in 1987.

“But I know so many people, who had been recruited illegally during the Left rule. But Trinamul never says anything about it. We did not take any action against the irregularities in the appointment of a huge number of 46,000 candidates as per the CAG report.

Now, time has come to submit a detailed report to the chief minister on such irregular recruitments,” he added.

While the CBI was taking Partha to court, he said, “Those like Sujan Chakraborty, Dilip babu (Dilip Ghosh), Suvendu babu (Suvendu Adhikari) who have been making tall claims, they should look at themselves.”

“What did they do in north Bengal? Go through the CAG reports. They lobbied everywhere because I refused,” Partha said.