SSC applicants opt for posts that do not exist

KOLKATA, 22 JULY: The West Bengal School Service Commission is facing a dilemma of sorts, having received applications for teaching posts which do not exist at all. The number of such applications is at least 10,000, said an official of the commission, while the total number of applications is over 7 lakhs.  

In the process of picking up, examining and cancelling all these invalid applications, the commission ended up delaying the dispatch of admit cards to the bonafide candidates. Hence, with only one week left for the examination, most of the candidates are yet to receive their admit cards.

The examination for the post assistant teachers is scheduled on 29 July.

Teaching posts in subjects like Anthropology, Telugu, Agriculture, Urdu, Gurmukhi are not available in all regions and in pass and honours categories. Describing the situation, an official of the commission said: “Suppose we advertised for male candidates and received applications from female candidates,” adding: “We have not cancelled these applications without any consideration. We have painstakingly picked up every application and thoroughly examined each one so that we have a proper reason to cancel those applications. We even held up a number of applications before cancelling them and asked the candidates to check the status online and come to us. A major portion of them did not turn up."

However, candidates who are supposed to write their papers on 29 July are worried as they have not received admit cards yet. “Previously it was told that distribution of admit cards will start from 9 July and online download will start from mid-July. But still we have not received our admit cards," complained a student. Prof. Chittaranjan Mondal, chairman of the commission, said: "We have been very careful this year. If we issue an admit card by mistake to a candidate who applied for a post which does not exist, the post would have to be created. Since we have introduced some extra subjects, the applicants confused the categories which delayed the entire process.”

statesman news service