State to release white paper on school recruitments since 1997, says Bratya

Kolkata: State education minister Bratya Basu on Friday said that his department would bring out a white paper on all school appointments over the last 26 years since the inception of the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) in 1997. Basu said that the continuous “canards and rumours” against those with Trinamool had prompted the government to make this move. “They are compelling us to order an investigation into the appointments made during the Left rule,” he said. Basu referred to state irrigation minister Partha Bhowmick’s demand for an inquiry into the appointment process of Mili Chakraborty, wife of CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty, at Dinabandhu Andrews College, Garia, in 1987. “I have nothing against her. I don’t even know her. I have a document with me showing that Mili Chakraborty joined the DA College on August 1, 1987 as laboratory assistant. She has retired by now. We don’t know whether any written test or interview was held for the recruitment,” the minister said. He pointed out that there were intense debates in CPM circles in South 24 Parganas at the time. “Her father, Santimoy Bhattacharya, was an influential CPM leader in South 24 Parganas. We are gathering news clippings from 1987 as it was reported in certain newspaper sections,” Basu said. The minister said he would take up the matter with chief minister Mamata Banerjee and act as per her instructions. Responding to queries on why the government decided to bring out the white paper at a time when several Trinamool leaders are accused in the cash-for-jobs scam, Basu said, “We’ve been decent to our opposition for all these years. But people took our decency as weakness and continuously made personal remarks to imply that whoever is with Trinamool is corrupt.”Basu said that the 2011-12 audit report by the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) on the SSC irregularities in 2009 would be appended.Referring to an allegation made by former education minister Partha Chatterjee a day earlier targeting BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, the minster said, “In 2011-12, the SSC used to prepare the list of candidates and send them to District Primary School Service Committees (DPSSC) in districts. We need to know the names of the DPSSC presidents.”Reacting sharply to the Trinamool allegations, CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty had said in a tweet, “It proves that we have hit the hornet’s nest. Earlier, many baseless allegations were made against Buddhada (former CM), Surjyada (former state CPM secretary), Gautamda (former housing minister) and Md Selim (present CPM state secretary. They spread canards to divert attention from their acts.”Basu said that Chakraborty was making “futile attempts to get in the league with former CM (Budhhadeb Bhattacharjee).”