Bengal chief secy retires, takes over as adviser to CM
KOLKATA: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said she was appointing West Bengal’s Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay as an Advisor for three years effective from Tuesday, after allowing the bureaucrat who was ordered by the central government to report to Delhi, to retire.
The Centre has asked him to join North Block on Tuesday but it cannot force an officer to join it without the permission of the state administration, Banerjee told a press conference.
“The CS got a letter from the Centre asking him to join North Block by tomorrow. This is not a reply to my letter but to the CS. I have not received any reply from it to the letter which I had sent earlier today,” she said.
The central government’s decision is unilateral and unconstitutional, the chief minister claimed. “We are not relieving him. He has superannuated today, but he will act as the chief advisor to the CM for the next three years,” Banerjee said.
Earlier in the day, Banerjee wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to withdraw the May 28 order that asked state chief secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay to report for duty at the North Block office of the department of training and personnel by 10am on May 31.
The Centre, in a surprise move, had on May 28 night sought Bandyopadhyay’s services and asked the state government to immediately release the top bureaucrat.
Bandyopadhyay, a 1987-batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre, was scheduled to retire on Monday after completion of 60 years of age. However, he was granted a three-month extension following a nod from the Centre to work on Covid management.
According to the letter, Bandopadhyay did not travel to Delhi as Banerjee refused to release him.
He attended a virtual meeting chaired by the chief minister and including district magistrates and departmental secretaries at 3pm to review relief work in districts hit by Cyclone Yaas last week.
The five-page letter was sent amid heightened political and bureaucratic activity in the state. Bandopadhyay, who was to retire on Monday, was given a three-month extension by the Centre on May 24 after the state sent a formal request, saying his presence was needed to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I am shocked and stunned by the unilateral order…,” Banerjee wrote in the letter, asking if there was a correlation between the Centre’s sudden decision to transfer the bureaucrat and the meeting Modi held at Kalaikunda in West Midnapore on May 28 during his visit to assess cyclone damage.
Though Banerjee met Modi briefly, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and Union ministers alleged that she skipped the meeting and thereby insulted Modi. This triggered a political row.
In her letter, Banerjee not only questioned the legal validity of the order sent to Bandopadhyay but also mentioned in detail the circumstances under which she and the chief secretary met Modi at Kalaikunda where leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari was also present.