New Delhi: The conduct of former West Bengal chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay of skipping a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 28 has come under question, government sources said Wednesday, maintaining that his act has made a severe dent to IAS as he seemed to have been working as personal staff of the chief minister.
Did Bandyopadhyay subject himself to the "whims" of the West Bengal chief minister so his post-retirement could be "handsomely rewarding", the sources asked.
They said the chief secretary cannot be working like the personal staff of the chief minister.
Bandyopadhyay's conduct on a day when the prime minister was in the state for a review meeting to ascertain damages post Cyclone Yaas has come under question.
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The sources said the country's first home minister Sardar Patel while addressing the first batch of the IAS officers had referred to them as the "steel frame of India".
They said Patel did not invent this phraseology only to inspire the young officers but behind this was multitude of connotations India was a multicultural nation where rulers of states "would have their own interests and egos, at times inflated".
If the Centre's representatives boycotted the meetings called by the chief secretary after natural calamities, would it not amount to institutional breakdown in a federal structure, they said.
"Would that not lead to anarchy? Alapan Bandyopadhyay's conduct on May 28 has made a severe dent to IAS, the supposed 'steel frame' of India as devised by Sardar Patel," a source said.
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PTI
