Kolkata, Sep 15 (IANS): Charging West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress of being involved in the "disappearance" of question papers for the primary Teachers Eligibility Test (TET), the students and youth wings of Left parties on Tuesday sought the intervention of Governor K.N. Tripathi in the matter.
As many as 12 Left-affiliated students and youth wings, including the Students Federation of India (SFI), took out a march to Raj Bhavan denouncing the Trinamool and demanding transparency in conduct of the TET examination.
Originally scheduled to be held on August 30, the examination conducted by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education was rescheduled first to October 4 and subsequently to October 11 after a bunch of question papers "mysteriously disappeared" while being transported to Hooghly district.
Talking to media persons after submitting a memorandum of demands to the governor, SFI general secretary Ritabrata Banerjee said there was "big conspiracy" behind the disappearance of the question papers.
"We believe there is big conspiracy behind the disappearance of the question papers and representatives of the state government are involved in it.
"We informed the governor that across Bengal, there is not even a single village where Trinamool has not taken money from people promising jobs. The Trinamool has converted the TET into a farce," said Banerjee.
"The TET question papers have to be now put under judicial surveillance, otherwise the irregularities will continue because those who have already paid money to the Trinamool will again get hold of the papers," he said.
Banerjee also demanded the state government to allow viewing of optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets in all such tests.
"It's the responsibility of the state government to ensure transparency. Our chief minister repeatedly claims that her government is No.1 in all spheres, then why OMR sheets are not shown to candidates when many other states allow that. We demand the candidates should be allowed to view OMR sheets," he said.
The Marxist leader said the governor assured them of taking up the issue with state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee.
Earlier, Left Front chairman Biman Bose alleged the involvement of the Trinamool and demanded a judicial probe into the question paper leak.