Civic hiring is in the spotlight once again. This past Saturday, the ED went to work at seven properties with ties to Trinamool Congress MLA and ex-Bengal minister Madan Mitra, ratcheting up the pressure on what is being called a municipality scam. It all comes down to one thing: were public positions put up for sale?
Then there is the matter of candidates who, by the officials’ account, wouldn’t have made the cut if not for a few well-placed bribes. The story from investigators is that hard cash and even gold were passed along by middlemen to tip the scales in favour of certain hires in various civic bodies.
What is under the scanner
If you talk to those in the know, the ED has drawn a line from Mitra to over 125 of the now-questioned appointments. We’re talking about different municipalities here; the case of Kamarhati is one they are poring over.
They are left to answer two things: were the rules of the road followed, and did some get in by way of the back door? You could see these municipal hiccups as part of a wider look into any oddities in how the state’s public sector has been staffed.
How the searches unfolded
It was the Kolkata contingent of the agency that was out in the field in the early hours, hitting seven of Mitra’s haunts. Their job was to come away with papers, ledgers, phones and anything else that would show them the trail of funds and point to the players in this alleged ring.
Here is what we have so far:
– A sweep of seven of Madan Mitra’s premises
– 125+ appointments in the crosshairs
– Middlemen in on the cash and gold
– Some of it goes back to the Kamarhati Municipality
What the word is from investigators
From what the ED can tell, there was a network of go-betweens making introductions between would-be employees and the ones with the power to hire, and handling the side-payments. They think the money was moved around a bit before it got to the people they have in their sights.
The ED’s take is that you can link these disbursements to the kind of appointments made in the field. Now they will be sifting through what they picked up in the raids to see just how deep the irregularities run and who is involved.
A separate pre-dawn move by the police
All of this was happening while, in another part of town, a sizeable police force with some central support was at the home of TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in Kalighat. The hours-long raid had to do with a file in Paschim Medinipur.
Don’t read too much into the coincidence of the two. There is no overlap in the procedure, but having both on the same day does put a finer point on law enforcement in the state right now.
Where things stand
Mitra has been quiet on the issue for now. The ED is moving forward with its work and will let the evidence from the ground floor of the probe tell them what to do next.
For those in the system and those looking to get in, it will be a matter of seeing if the numbers add up to a violation. Put it this way: if they find what they are after, the way civic bodies in the state do their hiring may have to change.
