Kolkata: A day after Alapan Bandopadhyay retired as Bengal’s Chief Secretary and was immediately appointed Chief Adviser by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Centre has issued a show-cause notice to the top bureaucrat for skipping a meeting chaired by PM Modi.
The notice under the Disaster Management Act asked Bandopadhyay to explain within three days the reason for his absence from the Prime Minister’s meeting on Cyclone Yaas in Bengal. In another letter, the Centre has asked Bandyopadhyay, a 1987-batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre, to report to New Delhi at 10 AM, Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Bandyopadhyay, who was serving as the Chief Secretary of the state, will take on the new role (Chief Adviser of Mamata) from June 1 for a period of three years. HK Dwivedi was appointed as the new West Bengal Chief Secretary.
Notably,CM Mamata and the Centre are at loggerheads after she skipped the cyclone review meeting with PM Modi last week. Mamata entered the room from where Modi was holding the meeting and submitted a report to him on the damages caused by the cyclone in the state, and sought a Rs 20,000 crore package for redevelopment of the worst-hit areas.
She was accompanied by Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay. A few hours after the meeting, the Centre ordered his transfer to Delhi.
Yesterday, in a five-page letter to Prime Minister Modi, Banerjee said she was “shocked and stunned” by the “unilateral order” asking Bengal Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay to report to the Centre, and made it clear that the state government “is not releasing” him.