Bengal CM refuses to relieve chief secretary; request PM to "rescind" the transfer order

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Monday, refused to release the state’s chief secretary, Alapan Bandopadhyay, so that the latter can “report to Delhi”. The Chief Minister said, the state “cannot release” and “is not releasing” the chief secretary “at this critical hour”.

The chief secretary heads over a dozen committees related to Covid management in the state and rescue-rehabilitation work for areas affected by Cyclone Yaas.

In a long letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mamata Banerjee said she was "shocked" and "stunned" by the "unilateral” and “unconstitutional” order" to recall Alapan Bandyopadhyay to the Centre. The recall order, Banerjee said, came as a “bolt from the blue” and has been taken with “mala fide intention” and “hot haste”.

Mamata Banerjee also requested the central government to "reconsider and rescind" the order issued hours after the Chief Minister, along with the Chief Secretary, skipped a review meeting (on May 28) chaired by the Prime Minister to assess damages in the aftermath of cyclone Yaas.

Alapan Bandopadhyay is a 1987-batch IAS officer was supposed to report to duty at Delhi on Monday morning. He was set to retire today (May 31) but was recently granted a three-month extension by the Union Government on the CM's request. Bandopadhyay is the second Chief Secretary of the state under Mamata Banerjee’s Chief Ministership to have been granted an extension. The previous one was Samar Ghosh.

"I humbly request you to withdraw, recall and reconsider your decision and rescind the latest so-called order in larger public interest," Banerjee wrote to Modi further asking if the recall order was in any way related to her meeting with PM Modi in Kalaikunda.

The recall order by the Centre does not provide any reasons.

The Kalaikunda Incident

On Friday, Banerjee, along with the Chief Secretary, skipped a review meeting Chaired by the PM at Kailaikunda. The Chief Minister was reportedly unhappy with the presence of Leader of Opposition and BJP MLA, Suvendu Adhikari, and Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar at the meeting, which she claims should have been a PM-CM meeting only. After making the PM wait for 30 minutes, Banerjee arrived at the meeting venue and met the PM one-on-one in a 15-minute meeting. She handed over a preliminary report on the damages due to cyclone Yaas.

The incident created a political row in the state, with the BJP calling Mamata Banerjee’s move a “violation of protocols” and a “disrespect of the Constitution”. The Chief Minister had initially said she was not fully aware of the PM’s schedule and had her own meeting and aerial surveys in place, denying the presence of Suvenudu Adhikari – her aide turned bête noire – at the meeting as a cause of displeasure.

On Monday, though, Banerjee practically admitted that Adhikari’s presence was a cause. In the letter to the PM, she detailed her version of events where she mentioned re-scheduling everything “rush to Kalaikunda”. She alleged that the “structure” of the meeting was revised to “include a local MLA” (referring to Suvendu Adhikari, who is the MLA from Nandigram) who had “no locus to be present in the PM-CM meeting”. No objection was raised to the presence of the Governor, Jagdeep Dhankhar, who had no role to play in the meeting, the CM wrote.

“…. But I am refraining from commenting further in this regard as a gesture of propriety and courtesy, but an individual MLA having no locus attending the meeting was unacceptable,” she further said, adding that the Chief Secretary had written and sent messages to officials accompanying the PM to “get this issue sorted out or to arrange a meeting between PM and CM before the meeting”.

“Despite a series of messages, we got no positive result or response,” she mentioned in her letter.