Bengal SSC Scam

SSC, Staff Selection Commission is a council which enlists employees in India. The
Government of India on 4 November 1975 formed Subordinate Service
Commission which later was renamed to Staff Selection Commission on 26
September 1977. Throughout the year, SSC directs 8 exams which are carried out
to fill the vacate posts of different departments; after UPSC Exams, SSC is the
following highly competitive exam carried out by the Central Government for the
vacate posts of Grade B and C. The level of competition in SSC is very cut- throat;
hence it is also known as mini IAS exam. The students who are appearing for the
SSC should start practising ahead of time.

There was a notice published earlier in 2014, stating all the state- run schools in
west Bengal, will appoint through SLST (state level selection test). The enlisting
process started from 2016, at that time the Education Minster was Partha
Chatterjee. However, there were some complaints and allegations filed in Calcutta
High Court against the enlisting process, the petitioners claimed that there were
some students who scored less ranked high in the merit list, there were also some
claims regarding the students who got year backed, also got appointment letters.
However, the West Bengal Government said all the enlisting will be done for
Group D employees. 25 persons were appointed by the panel of WBBSE IN 2019.

The Calcutta High Court single bench ordered a CBI inquiry to investigate the
allegations made by the petitioner; however the Mamta Banerjee Government
challenged the court prior the division bench. After the notice, the bench ordered
to form a committee which will look into the matter of allegations filed in the
court. The committee put up a question to the SSC and WBBSE, both the
institution gave divergent statements. “SSC stated; ‘they have not proposed any
employee recommendations’ and WBBSE stated; all the jobs were given according
to the data and information received.”

High Court said if the Calcutta’s Government found guilty, then it will be a matter
of shame for the department of school education, almost 10,000 employees will
lose their jobs if the government is found guilty. 2016 was the last process of
enlisting year, after that there is no enlisting of teachers done.

There has been a scam reported, after that ED (Enforcement Directorate) started
search operations, on Friday; ED raided Arpita Mukherjee’s place (a close
acquaintance of Pratha Mukherjee; former Education Minister) and seized 20
crore rupees, the raid was followed to the houses of some ministers also whose
name were breaking out in the scam. The sources told that Partha Mukherjee was
also interrogated and the raid at his house continued for approx 11 hours. He was
questioned regarding his relation with the teacher in the recruitment scam.

The sleuths investigated Minister Paresh Adhikari who was in Kolkata and his
house was also visited by the investigation agencies. On Saturday, the Trinamool
congress senior leader Partha Mukherjee (former education mister and cabinet
minister) was arrested by ED in connection to the teacher recruitment scam. After
being arrested, the leader started faking ‘sicknesses. ED submitted the medical
reports which was cross checked by the AIIMS Bhubaneswar, they said in their
reports that the minister have a chronic disease but at present he does not need
any medical attention, he is just faking his sickness to get advantage of his post.
The Minister can be taken into ED custody as he does not need immediate
hospitalisation.

The Calcutta Government headed by Manta Banerjee responded in context of this

case; if the accused is proved guilty then he should be punished. Although she
doesn’t referred or addressed Partha Mukherjee or the recruitment scam.

Mamta Banerjee said that she does not support corruption and quoted “if anyone
is found guilty, he or she must be punished, but I condemn malicious campaign
against me.”