"Mamata Banerjee has ruined West Bengal's education system, she should be jailed": Sukanta Majumdar

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], April 7 (ANI): Union Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar on Monday blamed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for ruining the state's education system and demanded that she be jailed.
Speaking to ANI, Majumdar said, "Mamata Banerjee has ruined the education system of West Bengal. The next 10 generations will suffer and Mamata Banerjee is responsible for this and she should be put behind bars."
He also blamed Mamata Banerjee and her government for the loss of over 25,000 teaching and non-teaching staff jobs and accused her of shielding those involved in the scam.
"So many people have lost their jobs. Who is responsible for this? It is Mamata Banerjee and her Cabinet. Did she ever admit that her leaders were the ones who were doing the corruption? If she were sincere, she should have thrown out those who were involved in corruption. But you are involved in this, that is why you are trying your best to save them," he said.
Majumdar added, "On April 16, we will hold a protest rally here over the teacher recruitment scam, demanding Mamata Banerjee's resignation."
On Thursday, the Supreme Court upheld the Calcutta High Court's decision to quash the recruitment of more than 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff by the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) in 2016 for the state-run and aided schools.
The bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar found that the West Bengal SSC's selection process was based on large-scale manipulations and fraud.
"In our opinion, this is a case wherein the entire selection process has been vitiated and tainted beyond resolution. Manipulations and frauds on a large scale, coupled with the attempted cover-up, have dented the selection process beyond repair and partial redemption. The credibility and legitimacy of the selection are denuded", the apex court bench stated in its judgement.
The apex court found no reason to interfere with the High Court's direction that the services of "tainted" candidates must be terminated and that they should be required to refund any salaries/payments received.
"Since their appointments were the result of fraud, this amounts to cheating. Therefore, we see no justification to alter this direction", the bench added.
The top court's verdict came on a petition filed by the West Bengal government that challenged an April 2022 order of the Calcutta High Court, which had cancelled the recruitment of more than 25,000 teachers and other staff for state-run and aided schools.
The top court had reserved its verdict in the matter on February 10. (ANI)