Calcutta HC Directs WB Govt to Provide Papers on Recruitment of Primary Teachers
Calcutta HC. Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
The West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) issued a notification on Monday asking the district primary education councils to provide the appointment letters and other documents related to the recruitment of 42,949 primary teachers under the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) 2014 by next Wednesday following the direction of the Calcutta High Court (HC) to provide the same to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
CBI had asked for the documents after Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay asked the Central investigating agency on June 14 to file an FIR and start an investigation into the alleged illegal recruitment of the teachers.
As per the notification, issued by Ratna Chakrabarty Bagchi, the Board’s secretary, the teachers have been directed to submit all the information related to their recruitment in Excel sheets to the Board on an urgent basis. As per the order of the HC, the information will be handed over to the CBI.
An official of the Board refused to comment on the matter. Teachers organisation Bangiya Shikshak o Shikshakarmi Sangha has expressed displeasure. Swapan Mandal, general secretary of the organisation, said, “If the government had maintained transparency in providing jobs, the teachers would not have been harassed like this. We want the CBI to conduct an impartial inquiry.”
West Bengal Board of Primary Education
Mandal also demanded questioning of top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state leaders. “Several of them were with the Trinamool during the recruitment process.”
Meanwhile, a Division Bench of the HC headed by Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj ordered the state government to submit an affidavit within four weeks regarding the appointment of primary teachers in another case hearing on Monday.
The Mamata Banerjee government had filed an application in the HC seeking dismissal of a public interest litigation alleging corruption in the recruitment of teachers. The HC dismissed the application and ordered the state government to file an affidavit. “The case is admissible. The next hearing of the case will be held on August 16,” the court said.
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