Bengal SSC says 19,000 jobs nixed by HC are ‘eligible’ recruits
Verdict BJP ploy, injustice to ousted teachers: Mamata
KOLKATA: The West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) on Thursday claimed that it had provided the Calcutta High Court lists of around 5,300 appointees from the 2016 school recruitment panel whose appointments were suspect, and stated that the remaining 19,000-odd teachers were “likely to 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 qualification 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 specific irregularities in recruitment, namely Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheet manipulation and rank jumps. The total number of such candidates for Groups C and D and teachers for classes IX-X and XI-XII was around 5,300.”
KESHIARY: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday dubbed the cancellation of over 25,000 school jobs as ‘gross injustice’ and alleged that it was a ploy by the BJP to stop these job losers from being deployed in poll duty. Banerjee, while addressing an election rally in the Medinipur Lok Sabha constituency in Paschim Medinipur district, wondered how the schools could function with so many teachers out of jobs. Earlier this week, the Calcutta High Court had declared the recruitment process of the State Level Selection Test-2016 (SLST) in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided schools as “null and void,” ordering the cancellation of all appointments.