Kolkata, Mar 24 (PTI) West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu on Friday claimed that his department has come across certain anomalies regarding the appointment of a senior CPI(M) leader’s wife in a college, but said the state government itself would not initiate any action against such alleged wrong-doers.
He said the department is collecting evidence in the cases where no written tests or proper interviews had been conducted before appointments were made in schools or colleges during the 34-year-long Left Front regime.
“I will hand over to chief minister (Mamata Banerjee) details of the anomalies we have come across in the appointment of a CPI(M) leader’s wife in 1987 who had retired in 2020,” the minister said.
Basu was referring to CPI(M) Central Committee member Sujan Chakraborty’s wife Mili was a former non-teaching employee of a college.
The CPI(M) leader dubbed the claim by Basu as a “feeble, desperate attempt” to divert the attention of the people from the alleged involvement of TMC leaders’ involvement in the teaching job recruitment scam.
His wife also asserted that she was appointed following an interview and she was not married to Sujan Chakraborty at that time.
Addressing a press conference here, Basu said the Mamata Banerjee regime did not get into these details since coming to power in 2011 “but as efforts are on to malign the entire TMC as corrupt”, the time has come to bring out the skeletons in the cupboard of the erstwhile Left Front regime by collecting evidence.
He said the state government will bring out a white paper with all such cases so that it comes to the knowledge of the Calcutta High Court which is hearing cases related to the alleged anomalies in the recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in schools during the TMC regime.
A number of teachers and non-teaching employees lost their jobs on the order of the high court because of irregularities in the appointment process.
“I may also refer to the words of former CPI(M) minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah who is now with us. He had said recently that in almost every family of CPI(M) whole timers, there is a state government employee, including teachers and non-teaching staff,” Basu said.
He said, “We have the highest regard for the law. As per the investigations into School Service Commission (SSC) and TET job recruitment are concerned, we don’t have any sympathy for the alleged offenders. Let the law take its course and the guilty be punished.” Basu told reporters that as a minister, his priority is to see that every deserving candidate gets a chance whether or not the person is associated with any political party.
The press meet was held a day after former education minister Partha Chatterjee, who was arrested by the ED in connection with the SSC scam, claimed before entering a court that CPI(M) and BJP leaders had recommended to him candidates for employment, but he did not oblige.
Chatterjee had named, among others, CPI(M)’s Sujan Chakraborty.
“They have produced a letter showing my wife was allowed to join as a non-teaching staff in a government-aided college. There was no irregularity as it was the normal practice with the college principal concerned having accepted it with his seal of approval,” Chakraborty said.
His wife Mili Chakraborty said that at that time there was no process for written tests to select candidates for the post in which she worked.
“I had been given the appointment in an elaborate interview process. I had applied for the job after seeing a newspaper advertisement about the vacancy in the college. I had also not been married to Sujan Chakraborty then,” she told a television channel. PTI SUS RG NN
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