West Bengal: 2014 TET-pass candidates protest outside CM's house demanding jobs

Candidates from West Bengal who qualified the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) in 2014 staged a protest outside Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's residence in Kolkata on November 16, Wednesday. The protesters demanded that they be given jobs immediately.

As per a PTI report, the candidates alleged that they have been deprived of appointment in schools due to irregularities in the recruitment process. They asked to be given jobs in government and government-aided primary schools.

The protesters blocked traffic at Kalighat crossing in the city in the afternoon. They sought to meet Banerjee to press for their demands and claimed that they were heckled by the police personnel and forcefully removed from the protest site. The PTI report also states that police had a hard time controlling the situation and when their pleas to vacate the roads were not listened to, they forcefully vacated the place. The protesters were taken away in vehicles to the Kolkata Police Headquarters in Lalbazar.

"We did not make it to the merit list despite studying hard and clearing the examination. But names of politicians featured in the list. Is it not a mockery of justice? We want justice," one of the protesters said. The protestor was referring to a merit list released by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE), which had names like Mamata Banerjee, Suvendu Adhikari, Dilip Ghosh, Sujan Chakraborty as candidates who have cleared the examination.

After this created an uproar, the board clarified that these were mere namesakes and the original merit list, published on its website recently, mentioned names of other candidates as well. "These were namesakes and the candidates' lists have the names of the candidates' parents and their contact details," it said.

The 2014 TET-pass candidates have also filed a plea in the Calcutta High Court regarding this matter, demanding recruitment. The CBI is now investigating alleged irregularities in the recruitment of primary and secondary school teachers by the WBBPE and the School Service Commission of the state on the High Court orders.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also probing the alleged money trail involved in the irregularities. Former State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and a number of senior officials were arrested by the central probe agencies in relation to the scam. Chatterjee was sacked as a Minister and as a member of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) party, as per PTI.