Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday said a fresh recruitment policy would be framed to remove “irregularities and nepotism”, stressing that job scams had tarnished Bengal’s image under the previous government.

The changes will include making copies of the OMR sheets available to each candidate, and stressing written exams over oral interviews, Suvendu indicated.

“We will in the budget session of the Assembly bring in a fresh recruitment policy for appointments to vacant positions at government and state-aided institutions,” he said at a Rojgar Mela in Sealdah on Saturday.

“The state’s image has been tarnished severely by the recruitment scams involving the previous government.”

The lack of jobs and allegations of irregularities in recruitment had beset the previous Trinamool Congress government and triggered regular street protests in the last few years.

“Apart from the SSC (School Service Commission) recruitment scam that cost the jobs of 26,000 school staff (teaching and non-teaching), investigating agencies are looking into recruitments to several municipalities and government departments like food and supplies. The new government appears extra cautious on this issue,” a bureaucrat said.

To make the recruitment process transparent, Suvendu said, his government would ensure that all the candidates at government recruitment exams get a copy of the OMR sheet so that the chances of irregularities become almost zero.

“When I assumed charge, I asked officials how recruitment exams are held in Bengal. I was told the exams are written on OMR sheets but the carbon copies remain attached to the sheet; the examinees don’t take them home,” the chief minister said.

Suvendu said: “This is why so many allegations of corruption came up on the previous government’s watch. We will change the system, and the examinees will be allowed to take carbon copies of the OMR sheet home.”

Officials said this would help aggrieved examinees challenge the recruitment process if they feel they were deprived unjustly despite writing correct answers.

They said the controversy over the 2016 school staff recruitments owed heavily to the unavailability of copies of the OMR sheets, which made it difficult to separate the fair recruitments from the corrupt, prompting the Supreme Court to scrap all the 25,753 recruitments.

Suvendu said his government would emphasise the written recruitment exam paper and the examinees’ academic record, rather than give weight to the oral test.

“We don’t want to give weightage to the oral test as this is the route through which nepotism and corruption sneak in. We will lay stress on the written exams and on (the candidates’) academic record,” he said.

He added that each candidate’s weightage score under the head of academic career “will be published on the website to make the process transparent”.

Third, Suvendu said, all recruitment exams would be held the way the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) and other central government recruitment agencies conduct them. He did not elaborate.

“We will hold a symposium on June 6 where the central government recruitment agencies, including the RRB, will be present along with the state government agencies. The symposium will help us frame the new recruitment policy properly,” the chief minister said.

The previous government had centralised the recruitment to primary, secondary and higher secondary schools under the SSC, allowing a group of officials and the school education minister to control all recruitment.

Under the Left Front government, recruitment to primary schools was done by the respective district councils, and SSC recruitment to secondary and HS schools was divided into five geographical zones, each handled by a different set of officials.

There was no large-scale allegation of job irregularities during Left rule, officials said.

“The chief minister has already asked the SSC to get rid of the centralised system and revert to the five-zone system of the Left Front,” an official said.

“The district primary councils too have been given the responsibility to recruit teachers in their areas.”

Skilling scheme

Rajneesh, additional secretary and development commissioner with the Union MSME ministry, met Bengal chief secretary Manoj Agarwal on Saturday for the implementation of the PM Vishwakarma Scheme in the state.

Launched in September 2023, the scheme aims to strengthen skill development, ensuring wider outreach among traditional artisans and craftspeople.