Bengal SSC Scam: Five Days After His Arrest, Partha Chatterjee Sacked From State Cabinet
The West Bengal government on Thursday removed Partha Chatterjee, who has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a school jobs scam, from the ministry with immediate effect.
'Partha Chatterjee, minister in charge, department of industry, commerce and enterprises, department of information technology and electronics, department of parliamentary affairs and department of public enterprises and industrial reconstruction, is hereby relieved of his duties as MIC of the aforesaid department with immediate effect,' an official order said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee later said at a government event here that she will look after the portfolios held by Chatterjee for the time being.
The ED had arrested Chatterjee, who is also the Trinamool Congress secretary-general, on July 23 in connection with its investigation into alleged irregularities in the recruitment drives by the School Service Commission (SSC).
The central agency has also arrested Chatterjee’s close associate Arpita Mukherjee, and seized crores of rupees from her houses in different parts of the city.
While the ruling Trinamool is trying its best to distance itself from the tainted minister and is now demanding that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conclude its probe into a teacher recruitment scam quickly, the opposition says that the ambit of the investigations be expanded to net everyone who would have received pay-offs from this cash-for-job scam.
The BJP’s Dilip Ghosh said that the scam in recruitment of teachers by the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) was not a small one that Partha Chatterjee could have kept hidden from his party colleagues and even the Trinamool top leadership.
BJP leaders say that though the Trinamool leadership is attempting to distance itself from Partha Chatterjee and his alleged misdeeds, the party in power (Trinamool) will definitely use the might and reach of the state machinery to prevent the ED from interrogating Chatterjee in a sustained manner.
(With inputs from PTI)