The notification, dated May 19, was issued 10 days after the BJP government led by CM Suvendu Adhikari was sworn in. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday (May 24, 2026) pointed out that the State gained infamy due to various recruitment scams during the previous Trinamool Congress regime and added his government will introduce a new recruitment policy in the next Budget session of the assembly.
“A Bill to enact a fresh recruitment policy will be introduced in the next Budget session of the West Bengal Assembly,” the Chief Minister said while participating in the Rojgar Mela in Sealdah on Saturday (May 24, 2026). The Budget Session of West Bengal Assembly will begin on June 18.
The third term of the Trinamool Congress regime from 2021 to 2026 witnessed several recruitment scams, like the teachers’ recruitment scam and the municipal recruitment scams, where allegations of jobs being handed over for monetary gains. The Supreme Court in 2025 had cancelled jobs of about 26,000 teachers and non-teaching positions on account of irregularities in the recruitment process. The allegation of corruption in government jobs came to hurt the Trinamool Congress, and the party lost the recently concluded assembly elections to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“Even the examination centres were tainted in such a manner that Eastern Railway, South Eastern Railway and Northeast Frontier Railway were not holding their recruitment examinations in the state,” Mr. Adhikari said. The Chief Minister said that the youths of West Bengal were sitting for the examinations in the neighbouring states of Bihar, Assam and Odisha.
The Chief Minister expressed his opinion that the carbon copy of the OMR (Optical Mark Reader) of the written examination conducted in the state should be given to every examinee.
“Our aim will be to give the carbon copy of the OMR to the examinees. It is a very bad practice with mala fide intention (of not giving the OMR sheet). Such practices were resorted to for encouraging nepotism and corruption,” Mr. Adhikari said.
For maintaining transparency, the Chief Minister said that more emphasis should be given to the written examination rather than interviews. “We want transparent written tests for recruitment, proper evaluation of academic excellence and implementation of the 100-point roster for reservation, which is mandatory. The government also wants to reduce the percentage of marks allotted for viva examinations and publish candidates’ scores on the recruitment organisations’ websites,” Mr. Adhikari said.
Published – May 24, 2026 12:32 am IST
