WBSSC scam: Major differences in number of illegal recruitments submitted by CBI and WBSSC

Kolkata: After the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) presented two separate lists to the Calcutta High Court on the number of ineligible candidates who secured teacher’s appointment in state-run schools illegally, the single-judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay noted with surprise the huge difference in the figures quoted by the two entities.

The figures quoted by the CBI on this count was 952, much higher than the figures submitted by the WBSSC.

First, the WBSSC presented its list on this count which said that there were 183 names in 9th and 10th standards, who secured illegal and out-of-turn appointments through recommendations.

Gangopadhyay directed the WBSSC to publish these 183 names on its website within 24 hours and also ordered the commission to inform his bench on the steps taken to terminate the services of those illegally recruited.

However, the picture changed within half-an-hour, as the CBI counsel submitted its report on the same matter and as per the findings of the central agency, the number of illegal recruitments on this count stood at 952, much higher than the figures submitted by the WBSSC.

As supporting documents, the CBI counsels submitted the optical marks recognition (OMR) sheets of 40 such candidates, which were tampered. The OMR sheets included some of those whose actual scores between ‘zero’ and ‘five’ were increased to between ’50’ and ’53’ at a later stage by adopting unfair means.

Of these 40 cases, 20 candidates were in the final recruitment list, while 20 others were in the recruitment list. The CBI counsel also informed the bench that of these 952 illegal recruitments, many are already teaching in different state-run schools.

Surprised over the huge differences in the figures quoted by the CBI and WBSSC, Gangopadhyay withdrew his earlier order directing WBSSC to publish these 183 names in its list on the commission’s website within 24 hours.

The matter will come up for hearing again on Thursday.

–IANS