WBSSC job case: Bengal education minister justifies non-publication of segregated list
Kolkata(The Uttam Hindu): West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu on Tuesday justified the decision of the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) to not publish the segregated list of “genuine” and “tainted” teaching and non-teaching staff in state-run schools on Monday and hid behind the Supreme Court. The delay came even though the same was promised by the commission and minister to the “genuine” candidates earlier this month.
“The job losers wanted a meeting with us. We told them earlier that we would not proceed without proper legal advice. Some demands of the job losers could be made legally. The Supreme Court never asked us to publish the list and this had been told to us by the best legal brains,” Basu told media persons on Tuesday afternoon. His remarks came as the genuine candidates have been protesting outside the WBSSC office at Salt Lake on the northern outskirts of Kolkata since Monday evening after the commission failed to publish the “segregated” list by Monday evening as promised earlier.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court’s Division Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar upheld the order of the Calcutta High Court’s Division Bench last year cancelling the WBSSC’s entire 2016 panel of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching jobs. The apex court also accepted the observation of the Calcutta High Court that the entire panel had to be cancelled because of the failure on part of the state government and WBSSC to segregate the “genuine” candidates from the “tainted" ones, who got jobs after paying money.
Thereafter, at a meeting of a delegation of “genuine” candidates with education minister Bratya Basu, the state government assured publication of the “segregated” list but as per legal advice, by April 21. Speaking to reporters, Basu reminded that till date the West Bengal government has neither terminated anyone from service nor given any instruction for freezing of salaries. “There are 17,2026 candidates who are not in the ‘tainted’ list. We are proceeding accordingly. I am requesting the protesting candidates not to do anything that would jeopardise the review petition that we filed at the Supreme Court,” he said.
He also said that the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee government and the state education department are determined to protect the interests of job losers. “Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is with the job losers. The state education department is always working to protect their interests. The matter is pending at the apex court after we have filed the review petition,” Basu said.
