Will check proof of ‘tainted’: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee
Telegraph | 8 April 2025
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee said during Monday’s meeting that she would examine what evidence has been submitted against those terminated teachers who have been identified as “tainted” and then decide on their cases.
“First, let me resolve the cases of the deserving candidates. Then, I will take up the cases of the undeserving. After we are through with the deserving, then I will see what evidence has been submitted against those who have been identified as tainted. If the evidence is proved to be true, then we will not be able to do anything,” Mamata said.
Tainted candidates are those who stand accused of securing jobs in government-aided schools through alleged irregularities like submitting blank OMRs and manipulation of marks.
The chief minister said this at Netaji Indoor Stadium while addressing the teaching and non-teaching staff who had been terminated by the Supreme Court on April 3.
“In the first phase, we will focus on protecting the deserving candidates. In the second phase, we will examine who has been identified as undeserving and why they have been identified as undeserving. We will also examine which agency carried out the probe and what papers have been submitted. We will check everything. Then, I will hold a separate meeting to decide on our stance,” the chief minister said.
She, however, did not give a timeline by when the cases of those teachers identified as tainted would be taken up.
“Do not create any trouble between the deserving and the undeserving,” she requested the gathering.
Some of the teachers who attended the programme said they have challenged the CBI’s report in which they had been identified as tainted.
Sucheta Maity, who taught at school in East Midnapore, said although the CBI had identified her as tainted, the agency could not prove the charge. She has challenged the CBI’s finding in the Supreme Court.
“I was put on the list of the tainted candidates on charges of manipulation of marks in the OMR. But when I checked the OMR that had been uploaded on the school service commission’s website, I did not find any evidence of manipulation. I have challenged the CBI’s finding,” said Sucheta, who was outside Netaji Indoor Stadium on Monday.
Sudipta Maity, standing beside her and holding a copy of an OMR, asked: “How could we be termed as tainted when the investigating agency could not prove anything against us?” While the two were justifying their case outside Netaji Indoor stadium, a heated exchange started between the two and teachers who claimed they were among the untainted. “It is because of tainted candidates like you that we are suffering,” some teachers, who said they were untainted, told Sucheta and Sudipta. An official of the school department said a section of the teaching and non-teaching staff had first been terminated by then judge of Calcutta High Court Abhijit Gangopadhyay. Gangopadhyay is now a BJP MP from Bengal. “The candidates challenged the order before a division bench of the same court. The division bench in April last year terminated the entire panel of the school service commission, comprising the tainted and untainted, because it could not separate the deserving and the undeserving,” the official said. The Supreme Court upheld Calcutta High Court’s order last Thursday