Centre to decide on action against Alapan Bandopadhyay quickly: Sources
The Centre might quickly take a action against former West Bengal Chief Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay for skipping Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s essential assembly on May 28 within the state over Cyclone Yaas.
“A reply from Alapan Bandopadhyay has been received last night and is being examined. Further course of action will be decided soon,” authorities sources advised ANI.
Alapan Bandyopdhayay had on Thursday replied to the Centre’s show-cause discover served to him below the Disaster Management Act to clarify his absence from the prime minister’s assembly on May 28, saying that he had to go away for a cyclone-hit space on orders from the chief minister, extremely positioned sources mentioned. The West Bengal authorities additionally despatched its reply to the Union Home Ministry on the matter on Thursday, the final day for sending it.
In his reply, Bandyopadhyay mentioned that as per the directive of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, he left the assembly of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a overview of Cyclone Yaas ravaged Digha, a preferred sea resort city in Purba Medinipur district.
The Union Home Ministry had on May 31 served a show-cause discover to Bandyopadhyay below a stringent provision of the Disaster Management Act that entails imprisonment up to two years, amid a tug-of-war between the Centre and the Mamata Banerjee authorities over him.
Bandyopadhyay, a 1987-batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre, was set to retire because the chief secretary on May 31, however the state just lately sought and obtained permission for extension of his tenure for 3 months as he performed a vital position within the struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic.
He was, nonetheless, despatched a directive to report to North Bloc in Delhi by the Centre, shortly after a row broke out over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s post-cyclone overview assembly with Banerjee on May 28.
The CM selected to meet the Prime Minister for simply quarter-hour as an alternative of an extended deliberate overview assembly, upset that her former aide, BJP chief Suvendu Adhikari too had been referred to as for the assembly at Kalaikunda airbase to overview the injury wrought by cyclone ‘Yaas’. Banerjee, together with the chief secretary, left after handing over a report on the devastation attributable to the cyclone within the state.
The bureaucrat, as an alternative of reporting to Delhi, selected to retire and he was subsequently appointed because the CM’s chief adviser.
The Union Home Ministry then served a show-cause discover on Bandyopadhyay below a stringent provision of the Disaster Management Act that entails imprisonment up to two years. A house ministry official mentioned that hours earlier than the CM introduced his retirement on May 31, Bandyopadhyay was served the discover for refusing to adjust to lawful route of the Centre in violation of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. Bandyopadhyay has began working as chief adviser to the Chief Minister.
With PTI Inputs
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