EC in a ‹x over deploying dismissed employees for poll duty in Bengal

The claim comes after a HC Special Bench judgment scrapped all 25,753 appointments made through recruitment process of State Level Selection Test-2016 in govt.-sponsored, aided schools

The Election Commission (EC) is in a x over the deployment of thousands of teaching and non-teaching sta§ in poll-related duties whose services have recently been terminated by the Calcutta High Court.

Sources in the oŽce of the Chief Electoral OŽcer, West Bengal, said about 40% of the 25,753 sta§ whose services have been terminated have been requisitioned for poll duty.

The challenge before the EC is to replace about 10,000 such employees from active poll duty. The Commission has asked District Magistrates across the State to prepare a list.

Polling personnel have already arrived in several booths in Darjeeling, Raiganj, and Balurghat, the three constituencies that go to polls in the second phase on Friday. The Commission has marked 98% of polling booths in these second phase seats as “vulnerable”.

While Opposition parties in West Bengal have raised questions over assigning poll-related duties to employees whose jobs have been terminated, the Trinamool Congress government is likely to raise the issue of their deployment before the Supreme Court to seek a stay on the Calcutta High Court order.

Sources in the government said it is diŽcult to replace thousands of such sta§ from poll-related duties at the last moment.

he West Bengal School Service Commission on Thursday claimed that it had provided the Calcutta High Court names of around 5,300 appointees from the 2016 school recruitment panel whose appointments were suspect, and stated that the remaining 19,000 teachers were “likely to be eligible”.

The Commission also said it believed that the 19,000 teachers, whose appointments also stand cancelled on account of a High Court judgment, might have met the necessary qualiˆcation criteria as laid down by the appointing authorities.

Talking to reporters, State SSC chairman Siddhartha Majumdar said, “We submitted before the court lists of candidates where anomalies in recruitment were found. These lists were based on two speciˆc irregularities

Tin recruitment, namely Optical Mark Recognition sheet manipulation and rank jumps. The total number of such candidates for Groups C and D and teachers for Classes 9-10 and 1112 was around 5,300.”

The claim came after the judgment of an HC Special Bench on Monday scrapped all 25,753 appointments made through the recruitment process of State Level Selection Test-2016 (SLST) in the West Bengal governmentsponsored and aided schools.

The court also directed that a section of those recruits will have to return salaries drawn by them along with 12% per annum interest.

In its judgment, the court said that it chose to cancel the entire appointment panel since it became impossible to separate the grain from the cha— on account of non-cooperation from the SSC and the Bengal government in providing the names of those who were illegally recruited.

In view of the HC order, the Commission will soon initiate a new recruitment process in which fresh candidates and those who lost school jobs on account of the court judgment can apply, Mr. Majumdar said.

“Our lawyers have pointed out some areas of confusion in the HC judgment on which we will seek guidance from the Supreme Court. All the a˜davits submitted have been placed before the apex court,” he said.

There were four a˜davits ˆled before the court since December last year where the Commission provided the names and roll numbers of the suspected recruits, Mr. Majumdar said, adding that the lists were also shared with the CBI.

Meanwhile, State Education Minister Bratya Basu said the government will preserve OMR sheets for 10 years. Speaking at the Trinamool Bhavan, Mr. Basu emphasised the State’s decision to retain the OMR sheets, drawing from the lessons of the SSC recruitment controversy. He indicated that the majority of the 26,000 SSC job recipients in 2017-18 were indeed eligible, citing SSC’s acknowledgement that 92% of them were deemed qualiˆed.

The Bengal government will preserve OMR sheets for 10 years

BRATYA BASU State Education Minister

DEBASISH BHADURI In limbo: Teachers and other sta whose jobs were terminated on HC orders write petitions to the Supreme Court.