New Delhi: West Bengal Commerce and Industries Department Minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged School Service Commission (SSC) scam on July 23.
The alleged school jobs scam took place during Chatterjee’s tenure as Education Minister in the Mamata Banerjee government.
Chatterjee’s close aide Arpita Mukherjee from whose house ED recovered Rs 22 crore in cash has also been arrested in the case.
While opposition has demanded sacking of Chatterjee, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo clarified that she does not support corruption and stressed that anyone found guilty of indulging in irregularities in the school recruitments must be punished.
At the same time, Mamata Banerjee attacked BJP, alleging misuse of the probe agency. She also demanded that the truth must come out “within a time frame”.
CVoter-IndiaTracker conducted a countrywide survey on behalf of IANS to know people’s views about the continuation of Chatterjee as a minister in the West Bengal government.
During the survey, a majority of Indians opined that Mamata Banerjee should sack Chatterjee in the wake of his arrest.
According to the survey data, 69 per cent respondents insisted that Chatterjee should be removed as a Minister.
However, 31 per cent of respondents did not share the sentiment.
Interestingly, during the survey, a majority of both the NDA and opposition demanded firing of Chatterjee from the ministerial post.
As per the survey data, 78 per cent NDA voters and 61 per cent opposition supporters asserted that Chatterjee should be dismissed.
Majority of both the urban and rural voters echoed similar views.
During the survey, 67 per cent urban voters and 67 per cent rural voters opined that Chatterjee has lost all the rights to continue as a Minister in the West Bengal government and should be sacked with immediate effect.
–IANS