Paresh Adhikari, minister of state for education in the Mamata Banerjee government, and his daughter, Ankita, a school teacher, boarded the Padatik Express from Jalpaiguri on May 18. They were supposed to get off at Sealdah, but they did not. The Eastern Railway’s CCTV showed them at the Burdwan station, around 700km away from Jalpaiguri. They vanished from the station.
Adhikari was expected at the CBI’s state headquarters at Nizam Palace later that day in connection with the alleged teacher recruitment scam. The CBI had filed an FIR against the duo, and the Calcutta High Court had ordered him to appear before the CBI. Ankita allegedly was appointed violating many norms. “She got the job just because she is the minister’s daughter,” said Babita Sarkar of Siliguri, who did not get a job despite having scored more marks than Ankita.
Thousands of eligible candidates like Babita had moved court alleging irregularities in recruitment. A battery of lawyers, led by CPI(M) leader Bikash Bhattacharya, fought their case in the High Court. Around 10,000 teacher appointments and around 900 non-teaching staff appointments (group C and D) are under the scanner.
Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay pulled up Adhikari and Partha Chatterjee, who was education minister when the irregularities happened, and asked a committee led by former judge Ranjit Bag to investigate it. The committee’s report on group C and group D appointments said that the signature of Kalyanmoy Ganguly, president of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE), was misused to commit the crime. Apparently, Ganguly’s signature was scanned and stored in a server for generating appointment letters from the soft copy of the data received from the School Service Commission.
The WBBSE, which makes the appointments, allegedly received fake data of fake candidates from the School Service Commission (SSC), the recruiting body. “According to school service commission rules of 2009, we would like to hold the chairman of the central commission and regional commissions responsible and liable for dereliction of duty and for violating the rules of school service commission. We don’t want to hold the staff members of both central commissions and regional commissions responsible,” said the report. SSC chairman Sidhartha Majumder resigned after the storm broke.
The opposition parties allege that it would not have happened without the knowledge of the Trinamool leadership. “It is well known that the top echelons of the government were involved in the scam,” said CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty. “No doubt that instructions were given to the education minister to recruit candidates who did not pass at all.”
Adhikari reappeared two days after he went missing, and was grilled by the CBI. It is said that he had made a deal with the Trinamool leadership for a ministerial berth for himself and a government job for his daughter when he jumped ship to the Trinamool from the All India Forward Bloc in 2015. “The entire blame is on the people who agreed to Adhikari’s conditions,” said a Trinamool leader.
The Bag committee recommended administrative action against the individuals involved by the disciplinary authority or pension sanctioning authority; those who got the jobs, too, could face criminal charges.
Justice Gangopadhyay has allowed the CBI to arrest Chatterjee, who is currently the commerce and industries minister and the virtual number two in the government. The CBI is also questioning education department officials who had worked under Chatterjee, including his secretary and officer on special duty.
The CBI has also been asked to investigate the money angle and to check if the Trinamool had asked Chatterjee to make speedy appointments. “Instruction was sent to Partha babu from Kalighat (the chief minister’s residence),”said BJP state president Sukanta Majumder. “Party leaders received Rs10 lakh to Rs15 lakh each from the fake job holders. Now you know how the party runs.”
Chatterjee denied the allegations. “If money came to my account then it is corruption. Let the CBI probe that,” he said.
Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh reacted more cautiously. “I think it was a mistake at that time,” he said. “The current education minister (Bratya Basu) can no way be responsible for it.”
The onus is now on the CBI. “Hope it would not be like the Saradha scam investigation conducted by the CBI,” said student leader Moidul Islam. “We want justice and jobs.”