Sacking Partha Chatterjee not enough, Mamata Banerjee should resign as CM: CPI-M on WBSSC scam row

Kolkata: Claiming that relieving Partha Chatterjee from his duties as a minister, days after his arrest in connection with a school recruitment scam, was not enough to set things right, the CPI(M) on Thursday sought West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's resignation. Bikash Bhattacharya, who is the CPI(M)'s Rajya Sabha MP, maintained that deserving candidates might not be able to bag jobs under the Mamata Banerjee regime.

“The CM should immediately resign from the post. Eligible candidates in the state will not be able to get jobs till the time the TMC is in power,” said Bhattacharya, a senior advocate who is representing petitioners in multiple cases connected with irregular school appointments before the Calcutta High Court.

In a similar vein, CPI(M)'s state secretary Mohd Salim stated that instances of irregularities have been reported in the past, too, “but no proper action was taken in these cases.” "Several other departments, too, have committed irregularities in the past. These have not been dealt with... Simply removing Chatterjee will not set things right. The chief minister should at least say that she will no longer tolerate such irregularities," Salim told reporters here.

"She is trying to put the blame on others, passing the buck; that's totally wrong," he added. The ED arrested Chatterjee on July 23 in connection with its investigation into alleged irregularities in a recruitment drive by the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC).

Earlier in the day, the state government relieved Chatterjee of his duties as minister in-charge of various departments. "Partha Chatterjee, minister in charge, department of industry, commerce and enterprises, department of information technology and electronics, department of parliamentary affairs and department of public enterprises and industrial reconstruction, is hereby relieved of his duties as MIC of the aforesaid department," an official order said. The chief minister said that he would be looking after the portfolios held by Chatterjee for the time being.