One week left for WBSCC to begin fresh recruitment process

Kolkata, May 24 (IANS) With just one week left for the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) to issue a notification for the recruitment of teachers and non-teaching staff, speculation is rife about the date of its publication and the contents of that advertisement.

The Supreme Court, while cancelling 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff in state-run schools in West Bengal through an order dated April 3 this year, directed the commission to start the process for fresh recruitments for the vacant posts by issuing advertisements for the same by May 31 and conclude the entire recruitment process by December 31.

A source in the State Education Department said the advertisement's draft is ready and will be released for publication as soon as concurrence from the state secretariat, Nabanna, is available.

The publication of the advertisement by May 31 is extremely important for the West Bengal government since missing the deadline might attract a contempt-of-court case.

Although the source refused to divulge the details of the advertisement's contents, it said that the commission will introduce certain steps for infusing more transparency in the recruitment process for teaching and non-teaching staff.

Special stress is being given on the preservation of the optical mark recognition sheets (OMR) used in the written examination for a longer period after the examinations are over to avoid future complications.

At the same time, the candidates appearing for the written examinations might also be allowed to retain a carbon copy of their respective OMR sheets.

On April 3, the Supreme Court upheld the order by Calcutta High Court's division bench of Justice Debangshu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi, cancelling 25,753 school jobs in West Bengal.

The Apex Court also accepted the observation of the Calcutta High Court that the entire panel of 25,753 candidates had to be cancelled because of the failure of the state government and the commission to segregate the "untainted" candidates from the "tainted" ones.

The state government and WBSSC had already filed review petitions at the Apex Court.

--IANS

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