One can smell fear and unease at Master Para, a settlement so named because it is densely populated by teachers, in Mama-Bhagina village of Bagdah, North 24-Parganas.
Located about 133km from Calcutta, Mama-Bhagina and its adjacent areas — Ramnagar, Netaji Pally, Padma Pukur, Nawda Para, and Baksha — are now reeling under an unprecedented blow, as around 100 schoolteachers from these parts, including nearly 40 from Mama-Bhagina alone, lost their jobs in the wake of the Supreme Court’s April 3 judgment on the tainted 2016 School Service Commission selection process.
But few dare to vent their anger under the watchful eyes of ruling party loyalists. Fear of political retaliation runs deep.
When the process for the teachers’ recruitment for the 2016 panel started, the agrarian Mama-Bhagina village became a job hub. Today, the very “job hub” tag, which once promised upward mobility, weighs heavily on Master Para residents as it has now become synonymous with alleged graft.
At the core of the infamy is Mama-Bhagina’s now-jailed resident Chandan Mondal, a para teacher close to then education minister Partha Chatterjee.
In February 2023, Mama-Bhagina’s name hit national headlines when Mondal was arrested as one of the key linkmen in the multi-crore recruitment “scam” in state-run schools when Chatterjee was at the helm of the education department. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the case along with the Enforcement Directorate (ED), accused Mondal of amassing at least ₹16 crore by selling teaching and non-teaching posts. CBI claimed that Mondal had developed direct links with Chatterjee, allegedly through a Calcutta-based relative.
“Chandan Mondal was actively involved in a criminal conspiracy with other accused persons and had succeeded in arranging illegal appointments for undeserving candidates in lieu of money, which he deposited into his bank account and also into the bank account of one of the alleged undeserving candidates,” the CBI counsel had stated during the prosecution.
According to villagers, it all began around 2012, when Mondal, then a CPM supporter, changed his political allegiance to become a TMC worker. Over the years, he gained proximity to Chatterjee through one of his relatives.
By 2016, every morning, jobseekers would gather outside Mondal’s house in Mama-Bhagina, a villager said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Some people were hired to count and pack the cash that arrived in bags bursting at the seams, and the money vanished every night.
Most villagers remain unsure whether the now-cancelled jobs at all went to deserving candidates because of what they once saw — long queues of jobseekers with bags outside Mondal’s house.
“The name Master Para pinches us every time now. We are from Mama-Bhagina, that is our identity. Not this label of shame (Master Para),” Anup Ghosh, a former gram panchayat member, told this correspondent when he visited Mama-Bhagina last week. Speaking to this correspondent on Saturday, he said he left Trinamool “in disgust” after the scam came to light.
An elderly villager said that when it became known that Mondal had proximity to top names in the Trinamool, including MLAs and ministers, bureaucrats, senior police officers, everyone became his client. “It gave us a sense of pride to see such powerful people coming to our village,” recalled an elderly villager. “But my illusion was shattered when I approached Mondal for a job for my son, and he demanded ₹8 lakh for a non-teaching post.”
A villager said the news about Mondal providing government jobs for cash spread like wildfire after several confirmed appointments.
“We watched helplessly as people, including several influential political figures, officials and common people from this area and beyond, gathered daily in front of his house apparently with bags of money,” he said. “To manage things locally, Mondal used to spend heavy amounts donating local party leaders, clubs and puja committees,” he added.
“This soil was used not for growing crops, but for growing corruption,” said another villager, summing up the collective heartbreak of Mama-Bhagina.
It was Upen Biswas, a retired IPS officer and former member of the Mamata cabinet, who first made an sarcastic reference to Mondal, calling him “Sot Ranjan (honest Ranjan)”. In a lengthy social media expose in April 2021, Biswas explained why he referred to Mondal as “honest”. The person allegedly facilitated jobs in government schools in return for cash but also returned the money if he failed to get the candidate the job, Biswas wrote.
During the recruitment scam probe, the ED traced a chain of bank accounts used for phase-wise transfer of the scam proceeds. Candidates paid sub-agents who then paid main agents. The cash finally reached the “masterminds” operating from within the education department and the SSC, many of whom are currently in judicial custody.
“Mondal had taken money from several of these teachers who have now lost their jobs. But none of us know who Mondal paid. Unfortunately, our village has now earned a bad name because of all this,” a farmer of Mama-Bhagina said.
Mondal’s house — a brightly painted two-storey building — stands isolated in the heart of the village, cut off from people. It was once a humble hut, said villagers.
This correspondent asked a woman, busy with daily chores in the courtyard, about Mondal. Later identified by villagers as his daughter, she not only refused to answer but also disowned the house as hers. She quickly disappeared inside, only to reappear moments later on the rooftop, covering her face while speaking over the phone.
Within minutes, two youths arrived on bikes and began tailing this correspondent till he left the village.