Govt open to publishing lists of tainted, deserving candidates: Bengal minister

Kolkata: West Bengal education minister Bratya Basu on Friday said the state government was taking legal opinion on uploading a list of genuine and tainted appointees drawn up on the basis of the findings of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to the website of West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC)

Basu made the announcement after a meeting with a group of teaching and non-teaching staffers who lost their jobs after a Supreme Court’s April 3 verdict that invalidated the appointment of 25,752 teachers and other staffers in state-run and aided schools in connection with the alleged irregularities in the 2016 recruitment process conducted by the West Bengal SSC.

“The School Service Commission has a list of genuine and tainted appointees based on the information provided by the investigating agency during the probe. It also has the images of OMR sheets as provided by the agency. The SSC, in its affidavits, has already informed this to the courts at least thrice during the hearing process. We are taking the opinion of legal experts before we publish this list on the SSC’s website,” Basu told reporters after the meeting. He said the list could be published on the website within two weeks.

The state education minister and other top officials of the education department and WBSSC held a meeting with a section of the teachers and non-teaching staff who lost their jobs after a Supreme Court’s verdict last week.

One of the teachers who attended the meeting with the ministry and top government officials at Bikash Bhavan in Salt Lake said they primarily had two demands. “That the SSC must publish the list of names of tainted and untainted candidates. Also, SSC must publish the scanned mirror images of more than 2.2 million OMR sheets of the 2016 state-level exam. The minister said that they were taking legal opinion for that,” said

The announcement comes days after West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday promised that her government would find a way to save the jobs of what she termed were deserving candidates following the Supreme Court orders in the bribes-for-jobs case, and urged teaching and non-teaching staff to continue working.

“Till I am alive I won’t allow anyone to take away jobs of the deserving candidates. This is my commitment. Don’t think we have accepted this (verdict). I may be sent to jail for saying this. But I don’t care,” Banerjee said, addressing a gathering of affected teachers at Kolkata’s Netaji Indoor Stadium.

The state government has already moved the Supreme Court for a clarification on the verdict and is likely to file a review petition soon. The apex court is likely to take up the matter on April 17, officials aware of the developments said.

The education minister’s outreach comes days after police used force on Wednesday to disperse protesters outside the office of District Inspector of Schools at Kasba in south Kolkata. As videos of policemen using batons and fists to disperse the agitating teachers emerged - one video clip of sub inspector Ritan Das kicking a protester particularly triggered outrage - senior police officers attempted to assuage public anger over the handling of the protest.

“That (kicking) action wasn’t desirable. But medical report of the police sub-inspector suggested that he had injuries in his groin, chest and ear. His spectacles were broken,” Kolkata police commissioner Manoj Verma said on Friday.

He also responded to criticism on reports that Das had been appointed as the investigating officer of the cases registered on Wednesday. Verma said Das was listed as the investigating officer because he was the duty officer at the time. “Later the probe was handed over to another officer,” he said.

Rupesh Kumar, joint commissioner (crime) of Kolkata Police, said, “Apart from the teachers and non-teaching staff, who lost their jobs, there were some other persons who were a part of the protest outside the DI office. Probe is going on and they are being identified”.

Earlier in the day, thousands of teachers and non-teaching staff held a protest rally in Salt Lake to demand that the government reinstate them. A hunger strike started by three teachers on April 10 continued on Friday.

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who as a high court judge ordered the CBI probe in May 2022 and later was the first judge to order the termination of the over 25,000 teachers and other staffers, also reached the venue to express solidarity but was booed by the protesters who raised “go back” slogans. Gangopadhyay’s verdict on cancelling all appointments was first upheld by the high court’s division bench and later the Supreme Court.