Kolkata: Some educational institutions run by non-governmental organisations (NGO) are currently under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) probing the multi-crore West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment scam.
Recently, ED sleuths had tracked a bank account held by the son of Trinamool Congress legislator and former President of West Bengal Board of Primary Education’s (WBBPE), Manik Bhattacharya, and traced an amount of Rs 2.64 crore. Bhattacharya had been recently arrested by the ED in connection with the WBSSC scam and he is currently under the custody of the central agency.
ED sleuths said that his son had connections with some NGO-operated educational institutions which conduct job-oriented certificate courses.
From examining the details of the transactions in the bank accounts of Bhattacharya’s son and other related documents, the ED has traced regular links of the latter with these educational institutions.
“We have enough reasons to believe that the otherwise ineligible candidates used to get admission for teachers’ training course in these institutions against hefty donations, and by virtue of the degrees or certificates they earned from these NGO-run institutions they used to get appointment as primary teachers in different state-run schools,” an ED official said.
On October 15, ED had raided the premises of Tapas Kumar Mondal, who used to run such institutions under the garb of NGOs, namely Minerva Educational and Welfare Society, Kamakhya Balak Ashram and Kamakhya Institute of Education.
Minerva Educational and Welfare Society used to conduct different job-oriented certificate courses and the central agency suspects that in reality, it might have worked as a bridge between the ineligible candidates and those entertaining teachers’ recruitment irregularities, both in WBSSC and WBBPE.
“Mondal is not the only linkman in this game. There are many more NGO-operated institutions which were directly or indirectly involved in the scam,” the ED official said.
–IANS