OMR sheets for 2014, 2016 destroyed on Manik Bhattacharya’s instructions says WBBPE

Kolkata: The West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) told the Calcutta High Court on Friday that the optical marks recognition (OMR) sheets used in the written examination for recruitment of primary teachers in state-run schools for 2014 and 2016 were destroyed following the instructions of jailed Trinamool Congress legislator and former WBBPE president Manik Bhattacharya.

On July 9, the board informed the single-judge bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha that the OMR sheets used in the written examination for 2017 were destroyed following Bhattacharya’s instruction.

Meanwhile Justice Mantha has been elevated to head a division bench of the Calcutta High Court and the cases relating to the irregularities in the primary teachers’ recruitment have been transferred to the single- judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha.

As the matter came up for hearing at Justice Sinha’s bench on Friday, the WBBPE counsel informed the bench that the OMR sheets for not just 2017 but also for 2014 and 2016 were destroyed following clear instructions from Bhattacharya, who is currently in judicial custody.

During the hearing Justice Sinha questioned whether the board followed the prescribed norms of reserving digitised data about the OMR sheets before destroying them.

To recall, on July 9 the WBBPE informed the court that Bhattacharya gave only verbal instructions for the destruction of the OMR sheets and while taking this decision he did not consult the other board members of WBBPE.