Bengal government reschedules TET exam again, this time to October 11
The decision was taken after state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee held a video conference with district magistrates.
BJP supporters burn the effigy of state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee in Kolkata on Monday. (Partha Paul)
THE state government has for the second time changed the dates for primary Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) examination, in which around 23 lakh aspirants have enrolled.
The decision was taken after state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee held a video conference with district magistrates and SPs at state secretariat Nabanna. TET, meant for recruitment of primary school teachers, was originally scheduled to be held August 30. After some question papers went missing, the state government deferred the exam to October 4.
State Chief Secretary Sanjoy Mitra said the exam has been rescheduled to October 11, keeping in mind flood relief operations which was being carried out in schools, various other exams and bypolls.
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“Relief camps are still operating at various places and several elections will also be held on October 3. Again, some competitive examinations are due on October 4. After a discussion with the state primary education board, we decided to hold primary TET on October 11. A detailed guideline will be published in newspapers and full transparency will be ensured,” Mitra told mediapersons.
Meanwhile, the education minister said Trinamool MPs Abhishek Banerjee and Kalyan Banerjee were likely to send legal notices to Left Front Chairman Biman Bose for claiming that the accused postal department employees, who had been suspended after the question papers went missing, were close to the MPs. “Both are senior MPs and we have informed them about Bose’s comments. They may soon send legal notices to Bose. We will also decide in a day or two what we might do on behalf of the party,” Chatterjee told The Indian Express.
The postponement of TET exam twice in four days gave an opportunity to the Opposition to lash out at Trinamool government. Senior CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty claimed: “It looks like TET will emerge as a bigger scam than Vyapam, with Trinamool’s involvement. A list of candidates has been drawn up, who will get through TET by paying a huge amount of money. The postponement is only to buy some more time to streamline the process.”
State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury too termed it as another Vyapam scam while BJP MLA Samik Bhattacharya said the state government has turned a serious examination into a farce.
On Monday, BJP youth wing, Yuva Morcha, held a rally against the scam and burnt the effigy of the education minister. Asked about the low turnout, youth wing president Amitava Roy said: “We have organised it in a very short notice and thus, there were few participants.”
The TET question papers, meant to be distributed at different examination centres in Hooghly, were transported in 154 bags from the state education department’s Salt Lake office to Serampore. The postal department was in-charge of carrying them while the state transport department provided the buses. On reaching Serampore, one of the bags containing the TET question papers was found missing.
Sources said the CID, which has taken over the probe, has already interrogated the driver and helper of the bus, from which the question papers went missing.
The CID sleuths will also question the two constables, who were guarding the bus. “Both driver Swapan Basu and helper Ujjwal Kundu have been questioned. We will also interrogate constables Chinmoy Mondal and Himadri Sekhar Biswas,” a CID source said on Monday.
Asked whether CID will question the two postal officials who were present on the bus, the source said: “We have to talk to everyone involved in the process of transportation of the question papers. We have to look who, where, how and what created the gaps through which the papers, even after the presence of so many persons, went missing. We are looking into all possible loopholes in this matter.”
“The involvement of influential external hands cannot be ruled out… Otherwise such things do not happen. We are also looking whether any racket is involved in this or not,” he added.
A senior postal department official said a departmental inquiry has been initiated against its two officials — Arup Das and Arup Mukherjee — who were on the bus carrying TET question papers to Serampore.
(With PTI inputs)
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