Kolkata: Citizens’ March Decries Teacher Recruitment Scam

Kolkata: Sohom Chakraborty, a theatre activist was all aghast at the TMC government. Talking to NewsClick, he said that the government had crippled a generation by orchestrating the teacher recruitment scam.

Sohom was part of a 11 member group of theatre activists who came from Belgharia to join the citizens’ march, which had been called by prominent city intellectuals against the corruption that has been unearthed, with over 51 crores in hard cash and ornaments recovered from the house of Arpita Mukherjee - a close confidante of Partha Chatterjee, former education minister of the West Bengal.

As per recent probe reports the money recovered appears only to be a tip of the iceberg in the now infamous teacher recruitment scam.

Anjan Bera of Calcutta University who joined the march on Monday, said, “Not only is this government corrupt but it does not have any merit to run the administration. It is not only corrupt but it is also incompetent. They have miserably failed to perform statutory responsibilities. The scam has put the entire state in bad light before the country. Autocracy and corruption are twins and that is happening now in West Bengal.”

“This is not the lacuna of an individual minister but the whole set up of the state administration is linked with it. Rule based administrative functioning is completely defunct here, the whole state apparatus has lost credibility. People won’t allow the rulers to downgrade Bengal to this state,” Bera told NewsClick.

The huge citizens' march, besides condemning corruption, also demanded for filling up the vacancies in a just and equitable manner. The rally was resplendent with placards against corruption and with slogans like ‘Chor Dhoro, Jail Bhoro’ (catch the thieves, put them in jail). Thousands of teachers, university professors, theatre activists, and cultural dignitaries joined the rally in Kolkata yesterday.

The rally was led by prominent educationist and linguist Pabitra Sarkar, poet Mandakranta Sen, former VC Shubhankar Chakraborty, actor Jairaj Bhattacharya, actor Chandan Sen, advocate and Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, among others.

Left Front Chairman Biman Basu, CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim, CPI(M) polit bureau member Suryakanta Mishra, CPI leader Prabir Deb, RSP leader Manoj Bhattacharya, Forward Bloc leader Hafez Alam Sairani, along with leaders of other left front constituent parties too joined the rally.

The rally started from Victoria House and ended at the Gandhi statue premises. Later at a rally here, Pabitra Sarkar held the TMC government responsible for the scam. In his speech Bikashranjan Bhattacharya said that “Right after 2011, in every appointment to the State government posts – be it in education or to fire services or in other government posts – there has been corruption. Our aim is to take the scam to its logical conclusion on the fourteenth floor of Nabanna (civil secretariat) where the CM sits. More is going to come if this government has its way,” he said and called for taking the citizens' rally to the block, village and district level of the state.