Hummingbird News Desk
KOLKATA, 30 MAY: West Bengal government has decided not to send Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay on central deputation in response to an order from the Union government, calling him back to Delhi.
Sources said the state government has not released Mr Bandopadhyay till this evening and the Centre on the other hand has not withdrawn their recall order as appealed by the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee yesterday.
After taking legal advice, the state government decided not to send Bandyopadhyay to Delhi.
Sources said on behalf of the chief secretary, Bhagabati Prasad Gopalika, secretary, Personnel and Administrative Reform Department, will write to the central government on Monday, explaining his inability to report in Delhi.
Mr Bandopadhyay is scheduled to attend a meeting with principal secretaries of all departments at Nabanna tomorrow morning to take stock of the cyclone relief and reconstructuring works and a review meeting that will be chaired by Miss Banerjee at 3 pm.
Yesterday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee held a Press Conference and said it’s a political vendetta by the centre to summon chief secretary on the day of his retirement to Delhi.
She said on 24 May, the cabinet secretary already sent letter regarding extension of Alapan Bandopadhyay for three months.
The state government wanted extension of CS who is heading the task force to combat Covid -19 pandemic and disaster caused by cyclone Yass.
Former IAS and IPS officers like Jawahar Sarkar , Prasad Roy, Ardhendu Sen all condemned the Centre’s summon of Alapan Bandopadhyay. But sources revealed that Mr Bandopadhyay would go to Nabanna tomorrow and attend chief minister’s meeting on disaster at 3 pm.
While, Mr Sarkar described it as unconstitutional, Mr Roy and Mr Sen said at the time of pandemic and disaster, the chief secretary was given extension as many task forces were formed headed by the chief secretary. So it’s a sheer vendetta politics that he was summoned on the last day of his service.
In December after BJP’s national president JP Nadda’s car was stoned at Shirakol in Diamond Harbour, the chief secretary and DGP and SP and ASP (South 24Parganas) were summoned by the Centre.
But the chief minister Mamata Banerjee strongly opposed the move. On 17 December, Mamata Banerjee wrote “GOI’s order on Central deputation for the three serving IPS officers of West Bengal despite the state’s objection is a colourable exercise of power and blatant misuse of emergency provision of IPS Cadre Rule 1954.
This act is nothing but a deliberate attempt to encroach upon State’s jurisdiction and demoralize the serving officers in WB. This move, particularly before the elections, is against the basic tenets of the federal structure. It’s unconstitutional and completely unacceptable. We wouldn’t allow this brazen attempt by the Centre to control the State machinery by proxy. West Bengal is not going to cow-down in front of expansionist and undemocratic forces.”
Former IAS officer G Balachandran said “What is even more amusing is that there is no mention of the concurrence of GOI to the officer’s extension of service. Therefore, the state is fully within its rights to refuse to relieve the officer. This is not the first time this has happened. Identical orders of three IPS officers in North WB were not complied by the GoWB last year. Three or four years ago, GoTN had refused to relive their DGP in identical circumstances.”
Tags: #AlapanBandopadhyay #Bengali #ChiefSecretaryofWestBengal #jaibangla #didi
