After Saradha, Siliguri and trident lights controversies yet another scam seems to have exploded in the face of the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. If “findings” of party MP Somen Mitra are a thing to go by then large scale irregularities have taken place in the recent appointments of schoolteachers in the State.
The Diamond Harbour MP has written to Human Resources Minister MM Pallam Raju demanding CBI enquiry into what his followers call ‘teachers’ recruitment scam’. The much touted Teachers’ Eligibility Test was held on March 31 this year. About a record 40 lakh candidates had applied for 35,000 vacant posts. The results that came out recently saw only about 18,000 applicants clearing the eligibility tests leading the Government to announce yet another examination early next year to fill the remaining posts. The Government was also planning to drop the qualifying marks, School Education Department sources said.
In the letter sent to Union Human Resources Ministry Mitra a veteran politician and former Bengal Pradesh Congress president has demanded CBI probe alleging that a large number of appointments were done at the recommendation of a group of Trinamool Congress MPs and MlAs. “It is imperative to investigate how much money changed hands if they at all did — as allegations are being made from certain quarters — in these exams” said a source close to Mitra.
On the credibility of such allegations particularly at a time when the veteran leader had made his decision public to switch sides to the Congress one said “when Somen Mitra speaks he does not do so without definite evidence” adding it was Mitra and late Howrah MP Ambika Banerjee who were among the firsts to blow the whistle a couple of years ago on the chit fund scam that later became a source of embarrassment for the Mamata Banerjee Government.
The National Council for Teachers’ Education has already expressed its dissatisfaction regarding the conduct of the TET exams on procedural grounds. This apart a case has also been filed in Calcutta High Court challenging the conduct of the exams. While the Trinamool Congress sources refused to comment on the issue insiders said Mitra was preparing to drop more bombshells in the coming weeks.
The ruling outfit that rode to power upon Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s “integrity” plank seems to have been under pressure on account of a host of scams that have exploded in its face. Already a party MP Kunal Ghosh is cooling his heels behind the bars in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund case which has sucked into its vortex a number of big names including Ministers and MPs.
A CAG remark on the reported embezzlement of Rs 350 crore in the trident light scam in Kolkata Municipal Corporation has also not done well to the Chief Minister’s reputations. Rubbing salt to injury was the multi-crore scam involving the Siliguri-Jalpaiguri Development Authority which saw a senior IPS officer being sent in compulsory waiting for arresting a District Magistrate reportedly involved in the scam alongwith a number of ruling party leaders including MlAs. The TET scam seems to come as the latest in the list of irregularities that the Government might have to handle in the election year experts said.