Alapan Bandyopadhyay faces show-cause notice

The Central government issued a show-cause notice to Alapan Bandyopadhyay for skipping a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on cyclone Yaas.

Kolkata:The feud between the Central government and West Bengal continues even after the retirement ofAlapan Bandyopadhya as chief secretary of the state. The government issued a show-cause notice to him for skipping a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on cyclone Yaas.

In dramatic developments on Monday, he was appointed as the chief advisor to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. On May 31, Banerjee wrote to PM Modi, requesting him to withdraw the Centre's order recalling Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay, and said her government "is not releasing" the top bureaucrat.

Bandyopadhyay, a 1987-batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre, was scheduled to retire on Monday after completion of 60 years of age. However, he was granted a three-month extension as Chief Secretary of West Bengal by the Centre in view of his work in managing the ongoing COVID pandemic.

Expressing her anguish in the entire episode of recalling Bandyopadhyay even after granting him a three-month extension, the Bengal CM had questioned whether the decision has any connection with her and the chief secretary's meeting with the PM at Kalaikunda in Paschim Medinipur district on May 28.

The transfer order had come within hours after a political row erupted on May 28 over Banerjee curtailing her meeting with PM Modi on the post-cyclone situation in her state to just 15 minutes.

The chief minister said in a letter that keeping aside legitimate reservations, she had entered the meeting to hand over our report to you. You personally took the report and then I specifically and expressly sought permission from you for us to leave for Digha.

''However, in the evening, suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, came the order seeking reversion of the Chief Secretary to Delhi," the letter said.