Opposition parties protest across Bengal after TET fiasco

West Bengal's opposition parties and their youth and mass organisations hit the streets on Saturday in protest against the state government's "failure" to hold the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) examinations scheduled for Sunday, after a bag of question papers "mysteriously" went missing.

Over 23 lakh candidates had applied for the TET examination, though which teachers in primary schools were slated to be recruited.

Twelve students and youth wings of the Left parties took out a rally from College street to Moulali in central Kolkata demanding the resignation of Education Minister Partha Chatterjee.

"We want the resignation of the minister who has made the TET exam a farce," said banners carried by the protestors, who put up a road blockade at Moulali crossing.

Communist Party of India-Marxist-affiliated Democratic Youth Federation of India and Students Federation of India demonstrated and held up traffic in North 24 Parganas district Sodepur, Murshdiabad district's Baharampur and various points of Jalpaiguri district.

Youth Congress activists organised a demonstration at Baharampur.

The Bharatiya Janata Party workers staged a demonstration outside the office of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education at Salt Lake.

The state government has rescheduled the examination to October 4 after a window of the bus carrying the bags of question papers was found broken and subsequently one of the bags was reported to be missing.

It has directed the the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) to initiate legal action against the posts and telegraph department whose services were availed to transport the question papers to Hooghly district.

Earlier in July, the entrance test for the Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) was rescheduled after question papers were leaked and were allegedly being sold across several districts.