Raju Bista, the BJP MP from Darjeeling on Tuesday wrote to the CBI director, demanding an inquiry into the teacher eligibility test (TET) conducted by the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) on February 14, 2021.

Opposition parties and candidates demanded a return of examination fees to candidates and filed an FIR against various officials of the GTA.

‘….requesting you to initiate a criminal investigation into the individuals who conspired to conduct this FAKE TET Exam and dupe the youths of our region,” Bista wrote in his letter to Praveen Sood, the director of the CBI.

A fresh controversy on TET was raked up in the hills following an RTI reply by the Bengal government stating that the GTA has not been accorded authority to conduct the exam. TET is the minimum qualification needed for a primary teacher’s job.

It is estimated that more than 14,000 hill applicants had sat for the TET conducted by the GTA over two-and-a-half years ago, before the Assembly polls. Its results have not been published. Anit Thapa helmed the GTA then as well.

The RTI was filed by a member of Hamro Party, an Opposition party in the GTA.

Hill Opposition parties have alleged that the “fake” TET was held months before the Assembly polls only to lure voters.

Rabgay Khaling Rai, a youth leader of the Hamro Party, on Tuesday demanded that the GTA refund the exam fees. “We have written a letter to the GTA demanding a refund.”

Candidates had to pay an examination fee of Rs 200. Those from the reserved categories had to pay Rs 100 each.

Nora Subba, a candidate, also filed an FIR with Darjeeling Sadar police on Tuesday against various officials of GTA for allegedly duping candidates.

“I came all the way from Singapore to sit for this exam. Also, my exam venue was Mungpoo for which I had to pay Rs 3,500 as taxi fare to reach the centre,” alleged Subba.

After the recent protest against the distribution of tea garden land with a cap of 5 decimals, the TET is brewing into a major controversy in Darjeeling hills.

The RTI was filed by Phinjo W Gurung, a resident of Darjeeling, on who the competent authority to conduct TET in all the districts of Bengal was. Gurung had also questioned whether GTA had the authority to conduct TET in the
GTA areas, whether prior permission was needed from the state government to hold this exam in the GTA areas and whether the hill body had taken the required permission to conduct the 2021 exam in the GTA areas.

An official of the school education department in an RTI reply stated that the West Bengal Board of Primary Education was the competent authority to conduct TET in all districts of Bengal and that the GTA was not accorded any authority to conduct TET in the GTA area.

A source in the know of the TET process, however, told this newspaper that the reply through the RTI query “gave answers to specific questions but not the complete picture”.