Bengal school job case: CBI probes why WBSSC infrastructure not used to preserve OMR sheet scans

Kolkata(The Uttam Hindu):  The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths probing the multi-crore cash-for-school job case are now probing why the available infrastructure of West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) was not used in preserving the “scanned” or “mirror” images of the optimal mark recognition (OMR) sheets used in the written examination for appointments for teaching and non-teaching jobs in state-run schools in 2016. The entire panel of 25,753 jobs for 2016 was cancelled by the Supreme Court earlier this month, upholding a previous order by Calcutta High Court last year. The apex court also accepted the Calcutta High Court’s argument that the entire panel of the commission for 2016 had to be cancelled since it was impossible to segregate the “genuine” candidates from the tainted ones who got school jobs by paying money.

Now, information has already surfaced that the main hurdle towards achieving this segregation is that all the OMR sheets used in written examinations for that panel were destroyed without preserving the mirror images of those OMR sheets. Now sources aware of the development said that during the investigation, the Central agency sleuths have found that the WBSSC’s office had the technical infrastructure sufficient enough to both evaluate and preserve OMR sheets in large numbers for years.

There arose the question of why, despite having such infrastructure, and what prompted the commission to assign the same task of evaluation and preservation to a Gaziabad-based outsourced agency. Sources said that the investigating officials are trying to reach out to the person under whose instructions this outsourcing was done instead of getting the same work done at WBSSC’s office using the available infrastructure. While the event of mirror images of OMR sheets was the second stage of lapse or irregularity on the part of the commission, the first lapse was destroying the soft copies of the OMR sheets for the panel of 2016 just a year after the written examination.

Before 2016, the commission followed the practice of retaining the OMR sheets used in written examinations for three years. Now, CBI has already informed the court that the waiting period for preserving the soft copies of OMR sheets is being changed to one year from the previous period of three years, establishing the intent behind his action. In March this year, CBI informed a special court in Kolkata that the soft copies of the OMR sheets were destroyed after one year following the instructions of the former West Bengal Education Minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee with the clear intention to destroy evidence in the school-job case.