West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee government found itself in a tight post recently after the appointment letters handed out by the chief minister during a placement drive turned out to be 'fake'.
The opposition slammed Banerjee for delivering fake letters to aspiring youths who had completed vocational skill development training. The job fair was launched in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII).
In a statement, Chief Secretary H.K. Dwivedi clarified that the jobs were not offered by the state government, and condemned the 'malicious' campaign to defame the state government. He said that the placement drive was organised by the CII, along with a job agency, which turned out to be fake.
“But those agencies came out as fraud organisations. CII has filed FIRs against the agencies,” Dwivedi said.
Questions arose from several quarters on how CII could become an arm to provide jobs. “It is the prerogative of companies to issue appointment letters to particular candidates depending on his or her ability and qualifications. This is completely new to me,” said a former economist attached to CII.
Suvendu Adhikary, leader of the opposition in Bengal, said, “What the chief minister has done is unique and unheard of anywhere in India. She must be given a prize for giving fake jobs. CM should be investigated on why she had presented job offers without verifying them.”
Many people who received job offers in Kolkata also pointed out that the jobs offered to them were frivolous. “They did not even mention the salary we would get,” said Tapas Majumder, one of the candidates who received the job offer.
