The state primary education board on Tuesday asked the district primary school councils for information on appointment letters for the posts of primary teachers from 2011 because “the entire process... is under the investigation of… the enforcement directorate”.
The notice addressed to the chairpersons of the councils and signed by the secretary of the board, R.C. Bagchi, says: “Enforcement Directorate urgently requires within two days the soft copy in excel format of the details of the appointees who have been appointed as primary school teachers on and from 2011 (from the recruitment process conducted following TET) till now.”
The board has detailed in the notice the format to be followed while sharing the information.
The format contains subheads such as Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) roll number, email IDs of the candidates, schools allotted to them and the year of recruitment.
The notice says: “This should be treated extremely urgent”. The board’s secretary had in mid-June asked the district primary school councils to submit records pertaining to the candidates who were recruited as teachers “as TET2014 qualified candidates so they can be submitted to the CBI”.
Asked about Tuesday’s notice, Goutam Paul, president of the ad-hoc committee tasked with running the board following the removal of the previous board president, said: “We have sought records that have been sought by the agency (ED). The board separately has also asked the councils to submit records pertaining to recruitment starting from 2011.”
When told that the board secretary had in June sought records for sharing with the CBI, another central agency, he said: “I won’t be able to comment on what was done before I assumed charge on August 23.”
The education department had last week appointed Paul as president of the committee, two months after Calcutta High Court removed Manik Bhattacharya from the post of president following charges of irregularities in the appointment of teachers.
A district primary school council chairperson said they had sent a communication to the sub-inspector of schools to send the records immediately.
Former education minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the ED on July 23 following complaints of irregularities in the appointment of teachers through the school service commission.
ED is probing the money trail in the scam and recovered about Rs 50 crore, besides gold and foreign currency, from two flats owned by Chatterjee’s alleged associate Arpita Mukherjee.