Mamata Banerjee Digs In Heels, Says She Won’t Release Chief Secretary For Central Deputation

As was widely expected, Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has refused to release state chief secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay for central deputation.

Banerjee wrote to Prime Minister Modi Monday morning stating in unequivocal terms that she “cannot release, and is not releasing” Bandopadhyay “at this critical hour” when the state is battling the pandemic and has been devastated by Cyclone Yaas.

The ‘transfer’ of the Bengal chief secretary to the Centre was a fallout of an unsavoury controversy that erupted over Mamata Banerjee not attending a meeting chaired by Modi to review the damage caused by Cyclone Yaas after having kept the PM and others waiting for over 20 minutes at an Air Force base at Kalaikunda in Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district on Friday afternoon.

The Department of Personnel & Training (headed by Minister of State Jitendra Singh who functions under the PMO) issued a letter on Friday evening asking chief secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay to report to the department in Delhi by 10 am Monday (May 31).

The Bengal chief minister, in her letter to Modi, said she was “shocked” and “stunned” by the “unilateral order” asking the chief secretary to report to the centre. Terming the order “illegal” and “unconstitutional”, she demanded that it be recalled and rescinded.

Wondering if the chief secretary’s transfer order was related to Friday’s developments at Kalaikunda, she wrote that “if that be the reason, it would be sad, unfortunate and would amount to sacrificing public interest at the altar of misplaced priorities”.

She also appealed to Modi in her letter “to end political vendetta, withdraw order recalling Chief Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay, and allow him to work for the Covid-infected”.

Alapan Bandopadhyay, a 1987-batch IAS officer, was due to retire on May 31 (Monday), but was given a three month extension by the Union Government at the request of Mamata Banerjee.

The latter had pleaded that the services of the chief secretary was necessary since he was heading a state-level task force to battle the pandemic.

Bandopadhyay was asked to report to the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT)at New Delhi’s North Block following his deputation to the Ministry of Public Grievances & Pensions.

While the chief secretary attended to his duties in Kolkata on Monday, it is learnt that the DoPT is likely to initiate disciplinary action against him for disregarding the department’s order.

That may trigger a court battle which, say constitutional experts and former bureaucrats, is not likely to go in the Union Government’s favour.