Bengal: SSC scam petitioner's fight may not be over yet

Homemaker Lakshmi Tunga of Nandigram, who says she was denied a job because others paid a bribe, sees hope in Friday's HC order but knows she and others like her will have to wait some more for justice

Lakshmi Tunga: Telegraph picture

Sougata Mukhopadhyay   |   TT  |  Calcutta   |   11.02.23  :  Lakshmi Tunga, a 34-year-old homemaker from Nandigram, has suffered. Repeatedly.

First, on account of the political violence that was unleashed on her family by the local leaders of the state’s erstwhile ruling dispensation, the Left.  Then, at the hands of the West Bengal School Service Commission which denied her a rightful government job. And finally, during her uphill legal battle against the powers that be in the corridors of the state’s school education system.

Tunga’s quest for justice before the state’s high judiciary dragged on for a year and a half until her perseverance paid off. That’s after Justice Abhijit Ganguly sacked 1,911 group D employees, currently employed in state-run schools, in one stroke. Tunga was among the petitioners who alleged large-scale recruitment corruption in schools of Bengal. 

But Tunga knows that her fight may have only just begun and the fruits of victory could remain elusive. At least for a while.  “I know that the government will challenge the order before the higher courts and I may not get my appointment letter just yet. But what choice do I have other than to keep fighting,” she told The Telegraph Online.

Lakshmi’s apprehension is not unfounded. The job losers are likely to file an appeal against the single bench judgment before the division bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar as early as Monday after the judge refused to hear their petition on an urgent basis on Friday, high court sources confirmed.

The homemaker had applied for the post of peon based on an SSC advertisement in 2016. She cleared the written test in February 2017 and qualified for the viva which she took in August that year. In the final merit list, Tunga ranked 249 in the overall category and 69 in the female category.

Her euphoria soon gave way to despair when that appointment letter never reached her house. Her repeated rounds to the education department offices soon made her realize it never will since the panel has been closed for the appointment. Adding insult to injury, Lakshmi found that many candidates who ranked lower than her on that panel had been offered appointments. Then the pandemic struck blocking all chances of another shot at the exam. That’s when, in November 2021, Tunga moved Calcutta High Court.

“Back in 1996, local CPM workers ransacked our family home in Kendamari village in Nandigram-I because my mother refused their party ticket in panchayat polls on grounds that she wouldn’t want become the face of the party which indulged in rampant grassroots corruption. I was young then but the house still lies in a shambles. Post-marriage, I shifted to Manoharpur in Nandigram-II. My husband is a contractual employee with the state irrigation department and I have a son who will soon be finishing school. I badly needed this job. But it was not to be,” Tunga said.

“This is a fight not just for me but for thousands of others who have the merit but no money to pay as bribes. Maybe this will force the government to bring back transparency into the system and instill some fear in the minds of those who are keen to bribe their way in,” she added.

Tunga’s legal counsel Firdous Shamim said: “It doesn’t matter if the job losers challenge the order before higher courts. No matter what they argue, they will not be able to fill up the blank answer scripts they had submitted and justify recruitment. We are ready with our legal position. The logical and legal conclusion to this matter may take a little more time. But, in the end, they will have to forfeit their jobs they got through bribes.”

“Ultimately these people will unite under some banner of a situational victim group and will demand a refund of the money they paid,” he added.

CPI-M leader Sujan Chakraborty claims that 80 per cent of recruitments which took place under the Trinamul Congress rule in the past decade are irregular. “The reason why this has not impacted the Trinamul vote bank so far is that the BJP-ruled Centre treats the ruling party as its alternative identity. The central leadership of the BJP keeps more faith in the TMC leaders of this state than they keep in their own state leaders. Hence there is no effective opposition which is part of a grand design,” Chakraborty said.

“The dominant mood in rural Bengal now is to get rid of the Trinamul. How to get that done may not be very clear. They have be to be insulated from the party’s thugs and their police back up who are trying to safeguard this regime. We hope to see some reflections of that in the panchayat elections,” he added.

The Trinamul Congress, though admits that there has been "some moral wrongs committed" in the recruitment process, maintains there would be no impact on the upcoming rural polls. "The number of adversely impacted people are just a minor fraction of the total rural electorate of this state. The people on the ground feel there may have been some corrupt practices which may have taken place somewhere. But in our area, the TMC is the dominant force. The opposition doesn't have the strength or the organization capacity to turn people's perception against the Trinamul," said Saugata Roy, senior TMC leader.