Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a fresh FIR in West Bengal’s multi-crore recruitment scam of teaching and non-teaching staff against anonymous beneficiaries of the proceeds of the scam.
CBI sources said that the fresh FIR has been filed following an instruction from the the bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of Calcutta High Court.
“Justice Gangopadhyay gave the instruction considering that names of more brains behind the scam are yet to surface. Hence, as per instruction, we have filed a fresh FIR in the matter naming anonymous beneficiaries,” a CBI source said.
The source also said that it has been mentioned in the FIR that these anonymous beneficiaries include some insiders in the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).
As per initial estimates of the CBI, a total of 16,500 individuals, which included both teaching and non- teaching staff, were appointed illegally against monetary considerations.
During a hearing in the matter on March 2, Justice Gangopadhyay pointed out that in 2014, an entity named S. Basu Roy got the contract for evaluation of the answer sheets of candidates appearing for the written examination. He also said that that the charge is that there had been irregularities in the evaluation process where ineligible candidates were granted higher marks.
Justice Gangopadhyay directed the CBI to investigate the reasons behind giving so many important assignments to that entity and why the said entity had access to the confidential section of the WBSSC.
CBI sources said that all the members of the WBSSC’s the-then ad hoc committee responsible for giving these assignments to the said entity will be summoned and questioned by the central agency sleuths and if necessary, will be taken into custody.
On March 2, Justice Gangopadhyay also directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to become part of the investigation on this count.
SRINAGAR: Students of Government Women’s Degree College, Sopore are facing an acute shortage of teachers, a crisis which has brought their academic progress to a standstill.
Government Degree College for Women Sopore
Out of the required 33 positions that the college requires, only 11 permanent faculty members are present. The college has not renewed contracts for or hired new contractual lecturers to make up for the staffing needs.
The College’s Arts faculty has less than one-fourth of the required teaching staff.
Despite several years of pleas from students and college administration alike, the issue is long impending.
The students had also staged a protest in the college premises on Monday last complaining about understaffing, mostly in the arts faculty of the college. The students took to social media to state their concerns regarding their studies having to suffer due to a lack of faculty.
“The matter has been taken up with the Director of Colleges and the Principal Secretary as well,” Principal GWDC, Sopore, Bashir Ahmad Parray said, confirming the lack of adequate staff. They have verbally assured swift action in the matter. We are awaiting further progress.”
However, the students from the college alleged oversight of their concerns from the administration. “We have not studied even a single word since February 15 due to a lack of staff. Our careers are getting ruined,” a student from BA History, second semester said. “Certain departments are being handled by single personnel. The arts faculty is the one which is suffering the most due to this shortage of teachers.”
“The college has only one English teacher who teaches both the faculties (Arts and Science) throughout all semesters. There is no teacher for history, economics, political science, and such major subjects. We used to have contractual lecturers but the administration hasn’t even hired them for the current session,” the student added.
“We talked to our Principal but he said there wasn’t much he could do about the matter as it is out of his hands to hire the staff. He is trying though,” another student, enrolled in BSc second semester, said. “We wanted to use social media to voice our concerns but nothing came out of it as well.”
Director of Colleges, Yasmeen Ashai also admitted the problem. “An advertisement has been issued regarding the hiring of contractual staff. We have sent a number of contractual teachers to the said college to teach minor subjects and the application evaluation process for the posts of major subjects is underway,” Ms Ashai said. “Due to the applications being in bulk, the hiring process is taking time but the process is already underway.”
However, students insist that no teaching faculty has been hired for the current session. “As per our knowledge, the last permanent teacher hired was way back in 2016. Contractual staff is a come-and-go trend but even they haven’t been hired for the current session,” a group of students said.
Besides, the students also voiced their concerns regarding transport and college infrastructural issues. “Our College is situated at an off-road location. We have to travel from far-flung areas and then walk long distances from the bus stand to reach the college,” one student said. “The two buses provided by the government aren’t functional. There are no drivers.”
The college buildings and other infrastructure are in a near-dilapidated state, the students alleged. “We have repeatedly taken up this matter with the principal but to no regard. Maybe the issue lies in this being a college for women,” one student commented.
DC Baramulla Dr Syed Sehrish Asgar had taken note of the matter regarding the college being understaffed and in a notice, directed the Principal Government Women’s Degree College Sopore to resolve the matter immediately. She had also ordered the principal to communicate the progress to her office. It was not immediately known if the college management has responded to the order or sought her help in addressing the issues.
Established in 2005, the college operated from the premises of Government Boys Degree College, Sopore till 2010, when it got its own building. Currently, it has around 1100 students on its rolls.
Hyderabad: Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Bandi Sanjay on Friday said that BJP winning the MLC seat in the Teachers’ constituency has proven strong sentiment of anti-incumbency against the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).
He added that polling for Mahbubnagar-Ranga Reddy-Hyderabad teacher’s constituency has set the mood for Assembly elections.
While speaking to the media persons, Sanjay said, “This is the first time in the history of Telangana that the BJP won the MLC seat in the Teachers’ constituency.
This election proves strong anti-incumbency against the BRS, especially among government employees and the educated sections. This election has set the mood for the Assembly elections in November.”
The polling for the Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad Teachers Constituency was held on March 13, with about 29,720 voters enrolled spread over nine districts in the constituency.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-backed candidate AVN Reddy won the Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad Teachers’ Member of Legislative Council (MLC) seat in Telangana.
After 21 rounds of counting, AVN Reddy secured 13,436 votes, crossing the required quota of 12,709 votes to emerge victorious.
Hyderabad: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-backed candidate AVN Reddy on Friday won the Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad Teachers’ Member of Legislative Council (MLC) seat in Telangana.
After 21 rounds of counting, AVN Reddy secured 13,436 votes, crossing the required quota of 12,709 votes to emerge victorious.
Earlier, GHMC additional commissioner (Legal) and returning officer Priyanka Ala explaining the process stated that a total of 25,868 votes were polled, and a candidate needs to secure 12,709 votes to be declared the winner. Elimination of candidates will take place until one of them reaches the derived quota, she said.
Until 8 pm on the day of the counting, AVN Reddy was leading by 943 votes over PRTU candidate Chennakesava Reddy. The BJP-backed candidate received 7,584 votes, followed by G Chenna Keshava Reddy with 6,641 votes and Papannagari Manik Reddy with 4,644 votes.
Polling for Telangana Teachers’ MLC seat
The polling for the Telangana Teachers’ MLC seat was held on March 13, with around 29,720 enrolled voters spread over nine districts in the constituency. The polling recorded a high percentage of voter turnout of 90.40 percent.
Meanwhile, in the MLA quota, three BRS candidates, namely Challa Venkatarami Reddy, Despathi Srinivas, and K Naveen Kumar, won unanimously.
AVN Reddy’s win in the Telangana Teachers’ MLC seat is significant for the BJP, which is leaving no stone unturned to strengthen its presence in the state.
The victory can boost the saffron party’s confidence ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in the state.
Hyderabad: Arrangements for the smooth conductance of the Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad Teachers’ constituency MLC elections have been undertaken by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).
GHMC’s revenue additional commissioner Priyanka Ala, who has been appointed the Returning Officer (RO) for the election, reviewed the arrangements at the distribution centre set up at the GHMC head office on Sunday.
Polling is scheduled to be held from 8 am to 4 pm with a total of 137, including 126 main and 11 additional, polling stations have been set up.
Priyanka Ala instructed the polling staff to examine the statutory and non-statutory documents as well as the ballot paper, ballot box and voter list.
Briefing the arrangements, Ala said 12 sector control officers and 29 observers were appointed for the election.
In addition to the above, police bandobast, adequate infrastructure, drinking water and ramps for those with special needs are in place at the polling stations.
A distribution centre at GHMC head office to temporarily store election material and a reception centre at Saroornagar Indoor Stadium have been set up.
A total of 29,720 people have registered themselves as electors for the MLC Teachers’ Constituency election from eight districts out of which 15,472 are male and 14,246 female, while two electors have registered themselves as the third gender.
Srinagar, Mar 11: School Education Department Saturday ordered head of all government schools and teachers to start door to door campaign from March-15 to enroll students in public schools.
Director of School Education Kashmir (DSEK), Tassaduq Hussain Mir said this while announcing enrollment campaign for Academic Session 2023-24.
According to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Mir in a order said that the practice shall not affect the school work.
“Since the enrollment drive of last session was a mega success due to the efforts of all the functionaries of the department especially teachers and school heads and the School Education Department of JK got recognition at national level,” it reads.
Mir said that the new session is about to begin. “Therefore DSEK is announcing a mega enrollment campaign for a period of ten days starting from March-15-2023 without affecting the school work.“
The campaign will be launched by the DSEK from district Baramulla.
Stating the activities proposed for the campaign, the director said that all Education Officers including JDs, Chief Education officers, Principal DIETs, HODs of DIETs, Deputy CEOs, DEPOs, DIET faculty, Zonal Education officers, and Zonal Education Planning officers shall visit at least one or more habitations as a part of the door-to-door campaign in order to inspire field functionaries.
He further said that the cluster heads shall lead the campaign at cluster or complex head level.
”There shall be door to door campaigning by HOIs and teachers, rallies by children, parent motivation camps involving SMC and VEC and other community leaders, PRIs and village elders,” Mir said.
The director also said that the concerned officials shall keep updating village education register in schools for identification of Out of school Children (OoSC) and Children with Special Needs (CwSN).
“The activity should also include mainstreaming out of school children including the dropouts, never enrolled and CwSN,” reads the order.
According to the DSEK order, the details of the new enrollment will be recorded in an online mode by the school heads on the link to be provided by DSEK and District Cultural Coordinators will coordinate the process at District level—(KNO)
Kolkata: Soma Chakraborty, the beauty salon owner in Kolkata who purportedly took a loan of Rs 50 lakh from youth Trinamool Congress leader Kuntal Ghosh arrested in connection with the multi-crore teachers’ recruitment scam in West Bengal, will now have to return the money to the government immediately.
Sources said that Chakraborty was on Friday summoned to the ED’s office at central government office (CGO) complex at Salt Lake on the northern outskirts where she was asked to return the amount she took as loan from Ghosh. Sources said that she will have to return the money in the form of a demand draft within the next five days.
Chakraborty’s name surfaced, when the central agency sleuths while examining the bank account details of Ghosh and transactions there traced that an amount of Rs 50 lakh was transferred to her account from that of Ghosh in different phases.
During questioning, Chakraborty told ED officials that she owns two beauty salons, one in south Kolkata and the other in Lake Town area in north Kolkata and she took the amount as loan from Ghosh for the purpose of expansion and infrastructure improvement of those salons.
Sources said that ED officials found an extent of reliability because of her clear-cut submission on this count and then asked her to return that money as it is perceived that the amount she received purportedly as loan was part of the proceeds of the scam collected by Ghosh.
Now the question arises whether the ED will also ask Tollywood actor Bonny Sengupta aka Anupriyo Sengupta, who claimed to have received Rs 40 lakh as loan from Ghosh for purchasing a high-end premium vehicle, to return the money.
Sengupta also claimed that the loan given was adjusted against his performance fees for performing in different events organised by Ghosh. However, at the same time, Sengupta said that the entire arrangement was based on mutual trust and there was no paper-agreement on this count.
Hyderabad: The Election Commission of India has announced the biennial election poll to the Telangana Legislative Council from Mahabubnagar – Ranga Reddy – Hyderabad teachers constituency to be held on March 13.
The poll will be held on Monday from 8 am to 4 pm in Hyderabad, Jogulamba-Gadwal, Mahabubnagar, Medchal-Malkajgiri, Narayanpet, Nagarkurnool, Ranga Reddy, Vikarabad and Wanaparthy.
Telangana Chief Electoral Office has ordered a special casual leave to the central and state government employees on the day of the poll, to enable them to exercise their right of franchise.
However, the employees of the private establishments were informed that there is no provision to declare a general holiday for the elections to State Legislative Councils under the Representation of People Act, 1951.
Hyderabad district election officer urged the private schools, colleges, universities, management, and authorities to grant necessary facilities to their employees who are registered voters in the constituencies to take part in the polls.
SRINAGAR: The School Education Department (SED) has sought details of all Grade II and Grade -III teachers deployed to other schools or zones from their parent institutions.
An official said that the move has been initiated to streamline the pupil-teacher ratio in schools across Valley.
In this regard, the Directorate of School Education Kashmir (DSEK) has issued circular instructions to all the Chief Education Officers (CEOs) with instructions to furnish the details of all such teachers.
The CEOs have been further directed to explain the reason for continuing the deployment of teachers in other schools or zones if the deployment period has already expired.
“Provide the information in respect of all those ReTs/Teacher Grade II/Teacher Grade III presently deployed or transferred to other schools/zones/districts,” the DSEK circular reads.
The CEOs have been asked to furnish the details of the actual appointments of all these teachers besides the name of the school or zone the teachers have been deployed.
“Furnish the name and details of the deploying authority concerning order and the period of deployment or transfer. If the deployment period has expired, give reasons for the continuation of such deployments,” the circular reads, adding that the CEOs should mention the grounds on which these teachers were deployed to other institutions.
It is pertinent to mention that the move comes weeks after the advisor to J&K Lieutenant Governor Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar convened a meeting of officers and emphasized on rationalization of teaching staff in schools.
The Advisor had enjoined upon the officers for effective rationalization of teaching staff before the onset of the fresh academic session so that no time is wasted in the process and required subject-specific teachers are placed at the schools.
An official said the department last year deployed teachers of Primary and Middle schools in government high and higher secondary schools to overcome the dearth of teaching staff in these institutions.
He said the initiative was taken to overcome the dearth of teaching staff in these schools.
“But on the other hand, the move left middle and primary schools teacher deficient,” the official said.
He said the department will collect all the details of the department and following which the teachers will be posted in schools as per the requirement given the student enrollment—(KNO)
Srinagar, Mar 06: The School Education Department (SED) has sought details of all Grade-II and Grade -III teachers deployed to other schools or zones from their parent institutions.
An official told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the move has been initiated in order to streamline the pupil teacher ratio in schools across Valley.
In this regard, all the Directorate of School Education Kashmir (DSEK) has issued circular instructions to all the Chief Education Officers (CEOs) with instructions to furnish the details of all such teachers.
The CEOs have been further directed to explain the reason for continuing the deployment of teachers in other schools or zones of the deployment period has already expired.
“Provide the information in respect of all those RReTs/Teacher Grade II/Teacher Grade III presently deployed or transferred to other schools/zones/districts,” the DSEK circular reads.
The CEOs have been asked to furnish the details of actual appointments of all these teachers besides the name of the school or zone the teachers has been deployed.
“Furnish the name and details of the deploying authority with reference of order and the period of deployment or transfer. If the deployment period has expired, give reasons for continuation of such deployments,” the circular reads, adding that the CEOs should mention the grounds on which these teachers were deployed to other institutions.
It is pertinent to mention that the move comes weeks after the advisor to J&K Lieutenant Governor Rajiv Rai Batnagar convened a meeting of officers and emphasised on rationalisation of teaching staff in schools.
The Advisor had enjoined upon the officers for effective rationalisation of teaching staff before the onset of fresh academic session so that no time is wasted in process and required subject specific teachers are placed at the schools.
An official said the department last year deployed teachers of Primary and Middle schools in government high and higher secondary schools to overcome the dearth of teaching staff in these institutions.
He said the initiative was taken to overcome the dearth of teaching staff in these schools.
“But on the other hand, the move left middle and primary schools teacher deficient,” the official said.
He said the department will collect all the details of department and following which the teachers will be posted in schools as per the requirement given the student enrollment in schools—(KNO)
