Alapan chapter over, says Mamata
Chief Minister assures ‘full support’ to the bureaucrat after Centre serves him notice
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday described the controversy over former state secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay about his bureaucratic stint as a closed “chapter” since he took retirement.
The Trinamul Congress supremo, however, made it clear that her government would provide “full support” to the retired IAS officer of the 1987-batch who has been pulled up by the Centre in a show cause notice under penal charges of the Disaster Management Act seeking his explanation for skipping Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s review meeting on the devastation of Cyclone Yaas at Kalaikunda Air Force Station on May 28.
“Please do not ask me any questions on Alapan Bandyopadhyay. The case is over now. The chapter is also over now,” Banerjee told the media about her chief adviser in his presence at the secretariat.
Asked on the show cause notice by the Centre to Mr Bandyopadhyay, she said, “I have already said that I would not make comments on him since he has taken retirement. Still, what is happening with him, the government will give full support to him.”
Though Ms Banerjee did not reveal the nature of “full support” to the retired IAS officer, official sources indicated that the former state top bureaucrat is likely to get legal assistance from the state government as the ministry of home affairs has targeted him legally in its show-cause notice to keep the door ajar for his criminal prosecution which may result in imprisonment upto two years or a fine or both. According to the MHA, Mr Bandy-opadhyay, by skipping the PM's meeting, “acted in a manner tantamount to refusing to comply with lawful directions of the Central Gove-rnment and is thus violative of Section 51(b) of the Disaster Management Act.”
That was why he has been “called upon to explain in writing to this Ministry within a period of 3 (three) days, as to why action should not be taken against him under Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 for the aforesaid violation under the Disaster Management Act, 2005.”
It is, however, to be confirmed whether Mr Bandyopadhyay, who was heard on Tuesday about responding to the notice with proper grounds, has sent his reply to the MHA as the three-day deadline ends on Thursday.