West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (File)In a veiled reference to the arrest of her party colleague Partha Chatterjee in the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday hit out at the Opposition parties, saying they should stay away from vilifying everyone for the wrong done by one person.
Addressing a gathering during the state government’s ‘Shiksha Ratna’ ceremony on the occasion of ‘Teachers’ Day’ in Kolkata, the CM said, “A mistake was made. One person did something bad. Some good people also become bad in bad company. It is not right to insult everyone. We have to bring them on the right path. Netaji (Subhas Chandra Bose) said that it is our right to make mistakes.”
After Partha’s arrest in the school jobs scam and his sacking from the cabinet and suspension from the party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leadership had distanced itself from the former minister. Banerjee, however, had come out in the support of party’s Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal who was eventually arrested in a cross-border cattle smuggling case.
With her education minister Bratya Bose present on the stage, Banerjee while referring to the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh questioned as why the education minister of that state had not been arrested so far.
“Those who did not get justice, will be get it soon. The process will take time. I want to provide jobs. Nearly 89,000 teachers will be appointed in the state,” she told the gathering.
The CM added, “Twelve universities were established in the state between 1947 and 2011 (till TMC formed government in state). Another 30 universities and 51 colleges were set up in the past 11 years.” She also slammed the former CPI(M) government in the state, saying no official files from their tenure have been found. “We didn’t take anyone’s job. There is not a single paper from the CPM tenure. I didn’t get any files or papers. Now, mistakes are being caught just because there is documentary evidence,” she claimed.
Referring to alleged corruption in the health department during the CPM rule, Banerjee said, “Retired Justice Ashok Gangopadhyay had observed that someone had made a mistake and they should rectify it.”
The Chief Minister also announced to start a new subject in the school curricula which will help students learn ethics. She advised teachers to take a separate class for the subject.