Kolkata, July 7 Is the health department in West Bengal heading for a central agency probe into the alleged recruitment irregularities in the department, in line with the recruitment scams in the education department?
That is the question doing the rounds in the legal and power corridors of the state following an order by a division bench of the Calcutta High Court directing a judicial probe into the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of medical technologists in the state health department.
While ordering a judicial probe into the matter, the high court bench of Justices Harish Tandon and Shampa Dutta observed that the process of recruitment was a glaring example of nepotism, favouritism and misuse of power, where persons were selectively chosen.
Since partiality is not desirable in any constitutional body, there is a need to unearth the truth, the bench noted.
The judicial probe committee will be headed by Justice (Retd) Jayanta Kumar Biswas. The other two members of the said committee are senior counsel Ayan Bandopadhyay and Narendranath Dutta, Secretary, West Bengal Health Recruitment Board.
To recall, the high court had ordered a judicial probe into the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment scam last year. The report of the judicial committee was the main trigger point for a single-judge bench of the high court to order a CBI inquiry into the matter.
It has been learnt that in 2018, the West Bengal Health Recruitment Board issued an advertisement for recruiting 725 medical technologists. The interviews were conducted in 2019. However, one applicant challenged the grading system where selective graduates in science were granted higher marks than post-graduates in science.
The applicant first approached the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT), which rejected the application, following which he approached the Calcutta High Court.
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