Kolkata, Jan 29 Almost a year after the Supreme Court directed recovery of salaries paid to candidates who had proven to be 'tainted' in the cash-for-school job case, the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) has finally started initiating the process.
The Commission had already sent district-wise lists of proven tainted candidates to the District Magistrates concerned. The district Inspectors of Schools would now start the process of recovery by serving notices to the tainted candidates, intimating the amount they will have to return now.
The payment will include the principal amount of the salaries they received during their years of service, as well as the interest accrued, which was clearly directed first by a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court in 2024 and subsequently by a Division Bench of the apex court last year.
The Mamata Banerjee-led Bengal government had substantially delayed the process of beginning the recovery of salary amounts and interests from the tainted candidates.
Even the Bengal government had been reprimanded by the Supreme Court for delay in initiating the recovery process, with the apex court asking the state government counsel to clarify the delay on this count.
The apex court fixed an interest rate of 12 per cent on the principal amount of salaries that such tainted candidates received as salaries during their service periods.
Sources from the state education department said that the recovery will be made under the provisions of the Bengal Public Demands Recovery Act, 1913. Under the provisions of the Act, if any tainted candidate refuses to pay or expresses an inability to pay the amount, the same could be recovered through confiscation and auctioning of the property registered in his or her name.
Sources from the state education department said that on average each tainted candidate will have to pay an amount ranging between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 25 lakh, depending on their service period and their salary scales.
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