Former West Bengal chief secretary Alapan Bandyopdhayay on Thursday replied to the Centre’s show-cause discover served to him underneath the Disaster Management Act to clarify his absence from the prime minister’s assembly on May 28, saying that he had to depart 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.
Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi who succeeded Bandyopadhyay wrote the reply although its content material isn’t identified, the sources mentioned. 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 assessment of Cyclone Yaas ravaged Digha, a well-liked sea resort city in Purba Medinipur district, the sources mentioned.
The Union Home Ministry had on May 31 served a show- trigger discover to Bandyopadhyay underneath 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 lately sought and obtained permission for extension of his tenure for 3 months as he performed an important function in the combat towards the COVID-19 pandemic.
He was, nevertheless, 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 assessment assembly with Banerjee on May 28. The chief minister selected to meet the Prime Minister for simply quarter-hour as a substitute of an extended deliberate assessment assembly, upset that her former aide, BJP chief Suvendu Adhikari too had been referred to as for the assembly at Kalaikunda airbase to assessment the harm wrought by cyclone ‘Yaas’.
Banerjee, together with the chief secretary, left after handing over a report on the devastation attributable to the cyclone in the state. The bureaucrat, as a substitute 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 underneath 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 path of the Centre in violation of the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
Bandyopadhyay has began working as chief adviser to the chief minister.
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