Bengal Education Minister assures publication of segregated list of 'genuine' and 'tainted' candidates

After a marathon meeting for nearly four hours between the State Education Minister and a delegation of those who lost their school jobs, the latter told the media persons that Minister Basu informed them that lawyers were being consulted and the segregated list might be published as per the legal advice.

"In the presence of the State Education Minister, the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) Chairman Siddhartha Majumdar informed us that the segregation process has started and is expected to be completed by April 13. Thereafter, attempts will be made to publish the two segregated lists by April 21 but only as per legal advice. We were also informed that the mirror images of the optical marks recognition sheets are not available. The Chairman claimed that had the original mirror images existed the officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation could have surely tracked that. What are available are the soft copies of the mirror images, which might also be published as per legal advice," a delegation member claimed after concluding the meeting.

However, he added, that those who lost their jobs are not fully relieved even after the assurance, and their protest over the issue will continue until they get their jobs back.

Later speaking to the media persons, the State Education Minister said that the state government is in agreement with the demand of the job about publication of the segregated list.

"WBSSC has the details in the matter based on the information provided by CBI. Even the court has been informed about that. Now there is a demand for making them public. We are not against it. But everything will be done according to legal advice," he added.

Last week, Supreme Court's division bench of the Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar upheld an earlier order by Calcutta High Court's division bench of Justice Debangshu Basak and Justice Rashidi last year to cancel the entire panel of 25,753 appointments made by the WBSSC on grounds of failure on part of the state government and the commission to segregate "genuine" candidates from "tainted" ones getting jobs paying money.

It has been alleged that the segregation was not possible since the original OMR sheets were destroyed and the mirror images were not preserved allegedly to protect the "tainted" candidates who got jobs paying money.