The BJP government on Monday “immediately terminated” the tenures of nominated presidents and chairpersons of education boards and recruitment bodies, including the school service commission.
The decision was taken at the first meeting of the state cabinet chaired by chief minister Suvendu Adhikari.
Apart from presidents and chairpersons, members nominated by the previous Mamata Banerjee administration have also been removed.
A circular issued by a senior special secretary and addressed to additional chief secretaries, principal secretaries and secretaries of all departments said: “I am directed to request you that necessary action to immediately terminate the tenures of the nominated members/directors/chairpersons of different
boards, organisations, non statutory bodies and public sector undertakings of the state government under your department may be taken from your end.”
The government also said services of several officers working on re-employment or extension beyond the retirement age of 60 in various departments “may also be terminated immediately”.
The erstwhile Trinamool Congress government, led by Mamata Banerjee, had since 2011 appointed presidents
and heads of the state secondary education board and higher secondary council from time to time.
Many of those removed are likely to return to their parent institutions, including schools, colleges and universities, where they were earlier posted before taking leave
for administrative assignments.
Education department sources said Ramanuj Ganguly, who headed the ad hoc
committee of the state secondary education board (Madhyamik Shiksha Parshad), will return to West Bengal State University in Barasat as a professor.
Board secretary Subrata Ghosh will return to City
College as a teacher, while Gautam Paul, who headed the ad hoc committee of the primary education board, will return to Kalyani University as a professor.
Partha Karmakar, president of the higher secondary council, will return to the West Bengal Government College Education Service, through which teachers are appointed to government colleges.
Priyadarshini Mallick, secretary of the higher secondary council and daughter of former Trinamool minister Jyotipriya Mallick, will return to Asutosh College, where she is a teacher.
“Those who have been terminated will return to their parent services if they have not superannuated,” an education department official said.
SSC chairman Siddhartha Majumdar had retired from City College last year.
The higher secondary council president and secretary were terminated just three days before the publication of the results of the first semesterised higher secondary exams.
The Plus II board marksheets carry the signatures of both the president and the secretary. “We have written to the education board seeking their suggestions on marksheets, considering that those have been signed by the president and secretary, who have just been terminated,” a council official said.
The chairpersons of the district primary school councils have also been terminated.
Pintu Paruy, the co-convener of the BJP teachers’ cell, said they had demanded that the nominated heads be terminated because they implemented all the wrong policies of the Mamata Banerjee government and indulged in irregularities.
“We are happy that the government has heeded our demand,” said Paruy.