Undue benefit for minister’s relative

20 September 2011

biswabrata goswami
MIDNAPORE, 20 SEPT: At a time when chief minister Miss Mamata Banerjee has warned her party workers not to involve themselves in corrupt practices, the chairman of the Trinamul Congress-led West Midnapore Primary School Council, has been accused of transferring a recently-appointed teacher from a school in Junglemahal to a school in the district headquarters.
Ms Pamela Bose, a primary schoolteacher of Parasia in Maoist-hit Salboni, who is also a relative of Trinamul Congress minister of housing Mr Shyamapada Mukherjee, has been transferred (memo no. 1619/7/ES dated 12 September, 2011) within months of her appointment at Parasia school. Hundreds of primary schoolteachers in Junglemahal have been seeking transfer from the area in the face of Maoist threats since long. “Following the minister's intervention, Mr Murmu transferred her to a school in the district headquarters while our applications are gathering dust in his table,” said a schoolteacher who didn’t wish to be named.
In the past two months, at least 75 teachers from different schools of the Salboni, Goaltore, Lalgarh, Jhargram, Jamboni, Binpur, Silda and Nayagram areas have applied to the chairman with similar requests. Mr Murmu recently issued a circular (memo no. 1350/69/ES dated 16 August, 2011) mentioning that all requests with regards to transfer to non-Maoist areas would be looked into after 15 September, but Miss Bose’s transfer was done on 13 September, ignoring the letter and spirit of his own circular, another schoolteacher said.
Mr Murmu could not be contacted for comment. “In the past two years, Maoists have extorted money from me thrice. Recently, activists of the People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA), a frontal outfit of the ultras, have again demanded Rs 50,000 from me,” Mr Abhirup Basak (name changed on request), a headmaster of a primary school, barely three km from Salboni, said.
“It has now become unbearable for me. So, I have applied to the council chairman urging him to transfer me to some other school,” Mr Basak said.
Mr Rathin Pandey (named changed), a primary schoolteacher in Binpur, said: “I am compelled to stay away from my school for the past two months fearing attacks by Maoists. Two months ago, a group of rebels came to me and threatened to kill me if I failed to pay money to them.”
A police report suggests that the Maoists had murdered 22 primary schoolteachers in the past two years either for having links with the CPI-M or for refusing to pay money. Mr Biswanath Mandal, secretary of the All Bengal Primary Teachers’ Association, said the schools in Junglemahal already suffer from staff crunch.
In Junglemahal, there are about 1,200 schools where 2,500 posts are still vacant, he said. Hundreds of teachers had applied for transfers, but no one had been transferred, he added.