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TMC targets BJP as UP residents sit for Bengal teachers test citing unemployment
Around 31,000 candidates from other states appeared for Sunday’s tests held to appoint classes 9 and 10 teachers in Bengal government schools
Kolkata: As the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) held a fresh recruitment test for teachers on Sunday following the Supreme Court’s order in the bribe-for-job case, the noticeable presence of Uttar Pradesh residents among examinees at various centres triggered a political row.
WBSSC officials said around 31,000 candidates from other states appeared for Sunday’s tests held to appoint classes 9 and 10 teachers in Bengal government schools. Many of them were from Jharkhand and Bihar as well, they said.
The test was last held in Bengal in 2016. The Supreme Court cancelled all those appointments in April and ordered a fresh examination.
Rajkumar Yadav, a resident of UP’s Jaunpur district, came to Kolkata to take the written test.
“I am doing my doctoral studies under CSIR. With government jobs nowhere in sight in Uttar Pradesh I am trying my luck in Bengal. Unemployment is a huge problem in my state,” Yadav told the local media outside a WBSSC examination centre.
Satish Kumar, who came from Prayagraj, said he unsuccessfully sat for a test in Rajasthan as well.
“I completed my B.Ed and M.Sc years ago but the Uttar Pradesh government is not recruiting teachers. It seems West Bengal is a good place to try my luck,” Kumar said.
Satyabir Singh, who came from Allahabad, criticised the Yogi Adityanath government.
“Yogi sarkar makes a lot of promises but doesn’t deliver. Question papers get leaked before recruitment tests. Young people have no hope,” Singh told reporters.
These statements prompted the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) to take potshots at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) although around 0.3 million people took Sunday’s tests for around 23,000 jobs. In all, 0.319 million people were supposed to appear but many of the teachers who lost their jobs because of the court order did not turn up.
The TMC shared videos of several more job seekers from Uttar Pradesh. HT could not independently verify the identity of the people seen in the videos uploaded by the TMC.
“A student from UP appearing for exams in Bengal tore into the farce of @myogiadityanath’s ‘Bulldozer Sarkar.’ His words sting with truth: if the ‘nithalla’ Yogi Govt. created jobs, youth wouldn’t be forced to leave their homes in search of survival. Instead of employment, UP’s students get police batons; instead of a future, they get unemployment queues,” TMC said in a post on X.
“This is @BJP4India’s “double engine” – one engine bulldozes homes, the other bulldozes dreams,” it added.
TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh referred to the recent alleged harassment and detention of Bengali-speaking migrant workers in BJP-ruled states and Delhi.
“While Bengalis are tormented in BJP-ruled states, people from those states come here in peace to look for jobs. There lies the difference between Mamata Banerjee’s people’s government and BJP’s so-called double engine government,” Ghosh said.
BJP spokesperson Sajal Ghosh pointed at the bribe-for-job case being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) to counter the TMC.
“There is nothing unnatural about some people from one state looking for jobs in another state. I am only concerned about these examinees from Uttar Pradesh because they may be asked to cough up fat sums when this recruitment turns out to be another scam,” Sajal Ghosh said.
On Friday, WBSSC published a list of 35,726 vacant posts at secondary and higher secondary level in State-run schools.
While tests for classes 9 and 10 teachers were held on Sunday, those who applied for posts in classes 11 and 12 will sit the examination on September 14.
Multiple security features have been embedded in the question papers to stop leaks.
In May 2022, the Calcutta high court ordered CBI to probe the appointments of non-teaching staff (Group C and D) and teaching staff by WBSSC and West Bengal Board of Secondary Education between 2014 and 2021. The appointees allegedly paid bribes in the range of ₹5-15 lakh to get jobs. ED started a parallel investigation.
A number of TMC leaders, including the then education minister Partha Chatterjee, were arrested and properties worth more than 200 core sealed by the federal agencies.
The appointments of all 25,752 school teachers and non-teaching staff (Group-C and D) from the 2016 recruitment panel were cancelled by the bench of the Chief Justice of India on April 3.
On an appeal by the state, the top court said on April 17 that the non-tainted teachers may be allowed to continue in service until December 31 but they must go through a fresh selection test. The top court directed that none of the tainted candidates should be allowed to take the fresh test.
