WBSSC candidates who never joined schools still drew salaries for years; Govt cites record error

A fresh layer of irregularity has surfaced in the West Bengal school jobs scam as it emerged that several “tainted” candidates, previously identified by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) and marked as “non-joiners,” have been receiving salaries for years. These candidates were officially recorded by the state’s school education department as having failed to join duty despite receiving appointment letters for teaching and non-teaching posts.

The issue came to light amid ongoing protests following a Supreme Court order earlier this month that led to the cancellation of 25,753 appointments across schools in the state. While many “genuine” candidates have been protesting to demand clarity on their status, a section of “tainted” candidates has also launched a parallel demonstration, claiming their inclusion in the tainted list was due to technical issues in their Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets.

According to records, despite being labelled as “non-joiners,” some of these individuals continued to receive salaries from the government payroll. Sources in the school education department suggest this could be due to errors in updating digital records. A senior official said, “WBSSC is working with the state education department to resolve the matter,” acknowledging possible backend discrepancies.

The WBSSC has not released the exact number of such cases where tainted or non-joining candidates were paid. However, the department is currently reviewing internal records to determine how many candidates were affected and whether they had actually reported to their assigned schools. The absence of updated service data is being cited as one possible reason behind the salary disbursement to these flagged individuals.

The incident has added to administrative challenges, as both groups of candidates—those deemed genuine and those marked tainted—have intensified their demands. While one group is pressing for immediate publication of separate lists for transparency, the other is seeking a review of the process that led to their classification. The situation remains under active scrutiny as the education department and WBSSC continue internal discussions to trace the administrative lapses.