Bengal chief secy retires, to act as chief adviser to Mamata
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said she was appointing West Bengal’s Chief Secretary (CS) Alapan Bandyopadhyay as Chief Adviser for three years effective from Tuesday, after allowing the bureaucrat who was ordered by the central government to report to Delhi, to retire.
The Chief Minister told newspersons here that the central government had asked Bandopadhyay to report to Delhis North Block on Tuesday, but she added an officer cannot join a new office without permission from the State administration.
“The CS got a letter from the Centre asking him to join North Block by Tuesday. 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.
Mamata earlier in the day had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to withdraw the Centre’s order recalling the Chief Secretary, and asserted her government “cannot release, and is not releasing” the top bureaucrat. The move opens up various possibilities on possible action by the Central government against the top bureaucrat.
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, hours after Banerjee met the Prime Minister at Kalaikunda airbase for 15 minutes instead of a longer scheduled review meeting of the post-cyclone situation in West Bengal. Bandyopadhyay, a 1987-batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre, was scheduled to retire on Monday after completion of 60 years of age.