NEW DELHI:
TMC leader Kunal Ghosh
on Thursday launched a scathing attack on
All India Trinamool Congress
and accused the Mamata Banerjee-led party of being aware of the teachers recruitment scam even before the
2021 assembly polls
.
“The party was well aware of the fact that
large-scale corruption
and extortion in lieu of jobs was taking place in the school education department.
The party was aware of it even before the 2021 assembly polls,” Ghosh said hours after he was removed from the post of TMC’s West Bengal general secretary.
TMC removed Kunal Ghosh from the post of general Secretary of the state organization for “expressing views that do not align with those of the party”.
The former TMC leader added that due to this information about large-scale corruption that
Partha Chatterjee
was shifted to the industry department from the education ministry after the party returned to power for the third consecutive term in 2021.
The Enforcement Directorate apprehended TMC leader Partha Chatterjee in July 2022 for his alleged involvement in the SSC scam. Subsequently Chatterjee was removed from the state cabinet and TMC.
Moreover, several TMC leaders including TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya and Jiban Krishna Saha were arrested by the CBI for their alleged involvement in the scam.
Ghosh’s remarks came a week after the Calcutta High Court declared the recruitment process of the State Level Selection Test-2016 (SLST) in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided schools as “null and void,” ordering the cancellation of all appointments made through it.
Around 26,000 people have lost jobs following the court order. The TMC leadership had maintained that the party was not aware of the scam until the arrest of Chatterjee took place in 2022.
