By NewsGram Staff Writer
Kolkata: The students and youth wings of Left parties on Tuesday sought the intervention of Governor KN Tripathi in the "disappearance" of question papers for the primary Teachers Eligibility Test (TET), and charged West Bengal ruling Trinamool Congress of being complicit in the scam.
A march to Raj Bhavan denouncing the Trinamool and demanding transparency in conduct of the TET examination was consequently undertaken by as many as 12 Left-affiliated students and youth wings, including the Students Federation of India (SFI).
The examination conducted by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education was originally scheduled to be held on August 30, but was rescheduled first to October 4, and subsequently to October 11 after a bunch of question papers "mysteriously disappeared" while being transported to Hooghly district.
SFI general secretary Ritabrata Banerjee, while talking to media persons after submitting a memorandum of demands to the governor, said that there was "big conspiracy" behind the disappearance of the question papers.
"We believe representatives of the state government are involved in the disappearance of the question papers and in it," Banerjee said.
"We informed the governor that across Bengal, there is not even a single village where Trinamool has not taken money from people promising jobs. The Trinamool has converted the TET into a farce," he declared.
"The TET question papers have to be now put under judicial surveillance, otherwise the irregularities will continue because those who have already paid money to the Trinamool will again get hold of the papers," Banerjee further added.
The demand to allow viewing of optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets in all such tests by the state government was also raised by Banerjee.
"It's the responsibility of the state government to ensure transparency. Our chief minister repeatedly claims that her government is No.1 in all spheres, then why are OMR sheets not shown to candidates when many other states allow that? We demand the candidates should be allowed to view OMR sheets," Banerjee said.
The Marxist leader also iterated the assurance given by the governor of taking up the issue with state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee.
Earlier, Left Front chairman Biman Bose had alleged the involvement of the Trinamool in the question paper leak and had demanded a judicial probe into the same.
(With inputs from IANS)