Party leaders of the anti Trinamool Congress camp have expressed happiness at the role of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has sought a detailed list of candidates and appointment letters issued to empanelled teacher candidates since 2011.
Secretary of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE), RC Bagchi, today issued a letter to the chairperson of all District Primary School Councils (DPSC), informing them of the urgent need to furnish information regarding the appointment letters given to the empanelled candidates from 2011.
“Since the entire process of appointment is under investigation, interns of relevant court orders by the Enforcement Directorate, Office of the Joint Director Kolkata ZoneII.
Accordingly, the Deputy Director, ED requires urgently within two days the soft copy of Excel Format in detail about appointees, who have been appointed as primary school teachers on and from 2011 (from the recruitment process conducted for TET 2012) till now,” the letter reads.
Reacting to the letter issued by the WBBPE secretary, Darjeeling’s BJP MP Raju Bista said that “individuals and bureaucrats, who sidelined qualified youths to accommodate family members of politicians or those who paid bribes,” should be careful now. “Watch out, your days are numbered,” he said.
“In the GTA (Gorkhaland Territorial Administration), those who were part of the socalled ‘verification committee’ have a lot to answer for. No one will be spared. Qualified youths will get justice,” Mr Bista said. Several social media users, meanwhile, commented on Mr Bista’s Facebook post on the matter. One Srijana Sharma said: “We’ll really be happy if it is done.
We shall feel we got justice.” A group of victims under the banner of the Gorkha Unemployed Primary Trained Teachers’ Association (GUPTTA), who have filled cases in the Calcutta High Court against alleged illegal recruitment of primary teachers in the Hills, had recently addressed the Press in Siliguri and claimed that the entire recruitment process had been illegal.
It is alleged that appointment letters were issued from Vikas Bhawan, following recommendations from local ruling party leaders the in GTA areas, but there were no records in the DPSC and even in the GTA of their appointments.
Very recently, BJP MLA from Kurseong, Bishnu Prasad Sharma (Bajgain), had said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee cannot avoid her responsibility in the alleged teachers’ recruitment scam. He had also said that he would knock the doors of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and request investigations. Addressing the Press at the Siliguri Journalists’ Club, Mr Sharma had further claimed that Miss Banerjee herself handed over appointment letters to teachers at Chowrasta in Darjeeling on 23 January 2019, following recommendation from several leaders in the Hills.
“Interestingly, the appointment letters were issued from Vikas Bhawan in Kolkata, when Partha Chatterjee was the education minister, by violating the recruitment procedures. In the name of voluntary teachers, many others, who were not eligible and were engaged in other services in different areas, had managed to get the appointment letters,” Mr Bajgain had said. The MLA had also met the Joint Director of the CBI in Kolkata on 16 June, and appealed him to investigate the alleged illegal appointment of teachers in government-aided schools under the GTA.