After the Supreme Court upheld the Calcutta HC’s verdict to dismiss almost 26,000 teachers and non-teaching staff across various schools run or aided by the West Bengal government, the state’s Opposition parties slammed the ruling TMC.
In April 2024, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court cancelled the illegal recruitment of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff by the 2016 School Service Commission (SSC), ordering them to return their salaries with interest. The court also ordered fresh recruitment against the posts within 15 days. Terming the verdict “illegal”, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had vowed to appeal against it.
The SC upheld the order on Thursday.
While Trinamool Congress is yet to react to the development, BJP state president Sukanta Majumder launched a scathing attack on the TMC-led government. Taking to microblogging site X, Majumder said: “The sole responsibility for this massive corruption in teacher recruitment lies with the failed Chief Minister of the state, Mamata Banerjee,” demanding her resignation. “The Supreme Court’s verdict has made it clear how, under Mamata Banerjee’s rule, the merit of educated unemployed youth in West Bengal was sold in exchange for money!” he added.
CPI(M) criticises
CPI(M)’s state committee member Sujan Chakraborty said, “State government got one year’s time to divide the list of genuine candidates from those who got job-giving money. But the state government failed to make that list and for that reason, those who are genuine also lost their jobs.”
CPIM state secretary Md Selim said, “Mamata Banerjee and TMC learned this corruption from RSS who first did this corruption in Madhya Pradesh which we knew as Vyapam corruption. Our fight will continue to uproot the main culprit of the corruption, because before 2011 (when Banerjee came to power), there was school job recruitment, but never a corruption allegation.”
Eminent advocate and CPIM leader Bikash Bhattacharya also said, “The Supreme Court said that those who are eligible candidates can sit in the examination within three months but the question is whether the government will take that examination transparently or not. We can’t believe this government.”
The Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI enquiry in 2022 over the alleged 2016 recruitment scam. During this inquiry, the CBI arrested former Education state minister Partha Chatterjee, former SSC officials Shantiprasad Sinha and Subiresh Bhattacharya, former TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya and many others in 2022.
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