School hirings: Panel submits report to HC

KOLKATA: A Calcutta High Court-instituted committee, headed by one of its former judges, on Friday submitted a report stating that 381 illegal appointments were made for Group-C posts in schools run or aided by the West Bengal government.

The committee recommended criminal proceedings against four former state School Service Commission (SSC) officials and

the incumbent president of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education.

It also suggested that disciplinary proceedings be initiated against six other former senior SSC officials.The report by Justice (retd) R K Bag-headed committee said that a five-member panel formed in 2019 by the Education Department, when senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee held the portfolio, for monitoring recruitments of teaching and non-teaching staff did not have any legal validity.

It stated that WBBSE president Kalyanmoy Ganguly was hand-in-glove with SP Sinha, the chief of the five-member committee, in making the illegal appointments.

A division bench directed that it will pass judgement on the matter on May 18.