Kolkata: The Union and West Bengal governments seem to have reached the state of muscle-flexing over the Department of Personnel Training (DOPT)’s fresh notice to the former chief secretary, Alapan Bandopadhyay, threatening him with “penalty proceedings”.
On Wednesday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee clearly said that she and her government will be behind Bandopadhyay in this crisis. Bandopadhyay is currently the chief advisor to the state government.
“Will the Union government get such an efficient officer like Alapan. This is not just war just against him. This is a war against all the bureaucrats in all corners of the country. I hope that the Union government will realize its mistake one day,” the Chief Minister told media persons at the state secretariat of Nabanna on Wednesday.
However, she did not specify exactly how the state government would stand by Alapan Bandopadhyay in this struggle. “I am told that there are legal options which Alapan will have to take. But our full support will be there,” the chief minister said without specifying further.
Also read: 'Centre carrying out political vendetta against Alapan Bandopadhyay'
This is the first time that the Chief Minister has said anything about the fresh notice issued to Alapan. However, other senior leaders of Trinamool Congress had already criticized the Union government on this issue and described the notice as the reflection of vendetta politics. They claimed that by threatening “penalty proceedings”, the Union government is trying to send a signal to the state government and they are doing this out of frustration after BJP faced a humiliating defeat in the state assembly elections.
Meanwhile, the team from National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) reached West Bengal on Wednesday. They are supposed to visit different places to review the situation in the backdrop of the complaints on post-poll violence. However, when asked, the chief minister did not speak a single word on this issue.
