West Bengal: High Court Directs CBI to Probe Primary Teachers' Recruitment Scam

After the upper primary recruitment scam, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the primary teachers' recruitment scam. The order was passed by a single bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who had earlier directed a CBI probe into multiple cases of state service commission corruption.

It has been alleged that many people received recruitment letters, even though they didn't appear for the recruitment exam. The issue came to light after Upendranath Biswas, a former minister of state and former joint director (CBI), uploaded a Facebook video, claiming that a man named Chandan Mandal illegal gave jobs to people against a payment of Rs 15 lakh from every person.

A case was filed in the High Court based on Biswas's video. The court directed to join Biswas's name as a litigant in this case to defend the case. The judge also directed Biswas to cooperate in the investigation. The High Court has directed the CBI to submit its report on June 15 in a sealed envelope.

Two consecutive cases have been filed in the Calcutta High Court on Monday and Tuesday over TET corruption. In the first case, a person named Subrata Mandal was accused of getting a teaching job after failing the recruitment exam. In the second case, 87 people have been named for getting jobs without appearing in the recruitment exam.

After the alleged corruption in the primary teachers' recruitment became public, candidates who passed the recruitment exam but didn't get a job staged a protest in front of the state administration building in Howrah, on Wednesday. They demanded the transparent appointment of primary school teachers and highlighted how they didn't get jobs even after passing the recruitment exam in 2014.

To show their resentment and frustration, protesters held pieces of bread in their hands and asked the state government to make food arrangements for them.

"We don't want an allowance of Rs 500. We want our job. We are being deprived despite clearing the recruitment exam," one protester said.

As the police attempted to stop the protest, the protesters sat on the road, which led to a clash between the two sides. Following that, police detained many protesters. Some women protesters claim that they were manhandled by the police. One protester was injured in the scuffle and had to be admitted to the hospital.

Many job seekers also protested against the state government. They complained that the names of 957 people were published in the panel after passing the sub-inspector examination in the food department. But even though, 100 of them have been given jobs, nothing is being said about the rest. NewsClick learnt that a case has been filed in court in this matter.