West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu on Friday announced that the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) is ready to publish the digital mirror images of Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets of all 22 lakh candidates who appeared for the 2016 exams with appropriate legal advice. This particular recruitment panel was annulled by Supreme Court on April 3.
West Bengal is currently witnessing protests and hunger strikes by former government school teachers who lost their jobs.
The Supreme Court court on April 3 upheld a 2024 Calcutta High Court judgment by invalidating the recruitment of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff appointed through the 2016 SSC recruitment drive, terming the entire selection process “vitiated and tainted”.
TMC leader Partha Chatterjee was the education minister back in 2016 and he is currently in jail along with other officials of SSC as part of CBI and ED's investigation into the school job scam case.
What Did State Education Minister Say?
Bratya Basu who conducted a meeting with agitating teachers and non-teaching staff, told them that the state government was hopeful of publishing the list within two weeks.
Basu said although the SSC does not retain its own digital images of the OMR sheets in question, it does possess copies of those sheets retrieved by the CBI during its course of investigation, and which the agency later shared with the commission.
“Since the matter concerns a judgment of the Supreme Court which we cannot violate, we are seeking legal advice to publish the list of deserving and tainted candidates by means of putting up the OMR sheets concerned on the SSC website.
“If there are no legal hurdles, we should be able to complete the task within two weeks,” the minister said, while confirming that the prospective deadline for publication is April 21.
Bengal Teacher Sit In Indefinite Hunger Strike Asking For OMR Sheets To Be Released
Demanding immediate demarcation between tainted and untainted candidates, three ‘eligible’ teachers from state-run schools whose jobs were invalidated by the Supreme Court on April 3 continued their indefinite fast outside the West Bengal SSC Bhavan on Friday which they started a day before.
The three teachers — Pankaj Roy, Suman Biswas, and Pratap Kumar Saha — vowed to continue their protest until the SSC publishes the OMR list of all 26,000 candidates whose appointments were cancelled by the Supreme Court.
"I am a political science teacher at Salaidanga High School in Malda with six years of experience. I am not tainted," Roy told PTI.
"We will not withdraw the fast under any circumstances until the SSC releases the OMR list. It is better to die than live in the current situation thrust upon us by the ineptitude of this council. Why can’t they inform the Supreme Court that we are not tainted? The ‘lollipop’ of voluntary service and no termination of salary and service for the time being is not acceptable."
Suman Biswas of Nakasipara High School echoed the sentiment. "We have our backs to the wall. This agitation won't end until the SSC officially announces us as untainted. Whose interests are they serving?"
Rabindranath Saha, a visually challenged teacher from a school in the Sagardighi block, also lost his job after six years of service.
"Though the Supreme Court made some concessions for candidates like us in its order, that라이브 바카라 only temporary relief," said Saha, who was a topper in secondary and higher secondary exams and holds a first-class master라이브 바카라 degree from Visva-Bharati University.
Who Are Eligible And Ineligible Candidates?
The school job scam investigation revealed that the majority of the 26,000 teachers and other staff members who were recruited in 2016 were ineligible and have paid money to the then Education Minister and others involved in the case to get the job.
Meanwhile, the rest are truly eligible for their job but these OMR sheets were not yet recovered by the CBI officials during their investigation which would help them demarcate between eligible and ineligible teachers.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested former West Bengal Education minister Partha Chatterjee and some others, who held positions in the state's SSC when the irregularities in the recruitment process took place.
