Alapan Bandyopadhyay opts to retire as Chief Secretary, appointed adviser to CM

Kolkata: Bengal's top IAS officer Alapan Bandyopadhyay retired as Chief Secretary on Monday and is now the Chief Adviser to the Chief Minister for three years.

The state government appointed the present Additional Chief Secretary of the state, Home and Hill affairs department, HK Dwivedi, an IAS of 1988, as the new Chief Secretary while 1989-batch officer BP Gopalika becomes the new Home Secretary.

The decision comes following an exchange of a series of letters by the Centre recalling Bandyopadhyay to Delhi despite giving him an extension of three months to continue as the state's Chief Secretary from the date of his retirement on May 31.

Mamata Banerjee had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that she would not accept Bandyopadhyay's transfer to Delhi at a time when he was handling the state's Covid crisis. The Centre's recall order came on Friday.

The Centre responded to Monday morning's letter by insisting that he has to report to Delhi.

"This is vendetta. I have never seen such a heartless Prime Minister. Just because they want to attack the Chief Minister, they attack the Chief Secretary. You have added insult to injury. There is no consultation. Why? Because you lost? Because you don't like Mamata Banerjee. The Centre may not be aware that he has superannuated and his services are not available for the Centre. I have decided we need his service for the Covid pandemic. For Covid and for Cyclone Yaas, he must continue his service to the poor, the state, the country, the affected people..." the Chief Minister said.

She accused the Prime Minister of treating bureaucrats like bonded labourers. "If a bureaucrat is insulted after he has dedicated his life to his work, what message is the government and PM sending out? There are many Bengali cadre officers at the Centre. Can I recall them without consultation?"

"His service is no longer available to join the Centre tomorrow as per today's order. This is the Centre's blunder. They want to bulldoze the country's federal structure and this is unconstitutional," she said.

"This is a battle of not Alapan Bandyopadhyay but the battle for all bureaucracy. This is disrespect and humiliation to the entire bureaucracy," she alleged.

No state should take such a decision lying down. "I appeal to all the state governments, all Chief Ministers, senior leaders of the country, all intellectuals to fight against the Centre," she added.

She also attacked the Centre for recalling the Chief Secretary without stating any purpose though the extension was given to him to fight against Covid and Yaas aftermath.

"I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister this (Monday) morning. They are yet to reply to the same. Instead they sent a letter to the Chief Secretary highlighting rule 6 (i) of the Indian Administrative Service (Cadre) Rules 1954 directing him to report at North Block at 10 am on Tuesday. But here also no reason has been stated. They had not even mentioned the reason behind recalling him on the day of his retirement in the letter that the Centre had send all of a sudden after the Prime Minister's aerial survey on May 28. The state did not agree as the purpose of which the extension was given still persists and we have detailed the same in my letter that I sent them this (Monday) morning," Banerjee said.

In the letter to the Prime Minister on Monday morning, Banerjee had snubbed the Centre for its "unilateral" order to recall the Chief Secretary to Delhi and stated that it had left her "shocked and stunned". She also cleared her government's stand to the Prime Minister that it "cannot release, and is not releasing, its Chief Secretary".

Maintaining that it would be "sad and unfortunate" if the recall order is a fallout of the row over her meeting with the Prime Minister at Kalaikunda, Banerjee requested him in her five-page letter to "rescind the latest order" that directs the Chief Secretary to join the Government of India on Monday that is the "normal date of his superannuation".

She also hit out at the Centre mentioning the "unilateral order or directive" to be "legally untenable, historically unprecedented and wholly unconstitutional" without meeting any of the pre-conditions of the Indian Administrative Service (Cadre) Rules, 1954 as it has been issued without any prior consultation with the state and "without any volition or option of the (concerned) officer".

"I really do not understand what happened between your allowing extension to the officer as Chief Secretary a few days back on May 24 after Centre-State consultation to enable him to serve the State of West Bengal in these times (when a simultaneous battle is going against Covid and aftermath of cyclone Yaas), and your unilateral order (4 days later) issued in contradiction to the extension granted by you. The unilateral order also does not provide any details, reasons and or particulars as to why the central deputation of Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay is required suddenly by you only a few days after granting an order of extension following the consultation process. Does it have something to do with our meeting at Kalaikunda on May 28?" Banerjee questioned stating that she "really and sincerely hopes that this latest order is not related to my meeting with you at Kalaikunda. If that be the reason, it would be sad, unfortunate and would amount to sacrificing public interest at the altar of misplaced priorities".

It was only on May 28, barely a few hours after the Chief Minister's meeting with the Prime Minister at Kalaikunda (in which she handed him over the primary assessment report of damage caused by Cyclone Yaas in Bengal), the state Chief Secretary — a 1987-cadre IAS officer — had received the letter from Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions directing him to report to North Block at 10 am on May 31.

This comes when the Centre wrote to the Bengal government's Personnel and Administrative department on May 24 informing about the extension given to Bandyopadhyay to serve as the state's Chief Secretary for three months beyond May 31, the date of his retirement. The extension was given as the Chief Minister herself had written to the Centre on May 10 to allow the same so that he "can serve the state in critical times when it is severely affected by the second wave of the Covid pandemic, which has further been devastated by an extremely severe cyclone".

Followed by a humble request to "withdraw, recall or reconsider" his decision and rescind the latest so-called order in larger public interest, Banerjee wrote: "The Bengal government cannot release, and is not releasing its Chief Secretary at this critical hour, on the basis of our understanding that the earlier order of extension, issued after lawful consultation in accordance with applicable laws, remains operational and valid. The latest order is also a clear violation of applicable laws and against public interest..."

Recalling her effort of rescheduling all her programmes of undertaking an aerial survey of the cyclone-affected areas and holding subsequent review meetings and reaching Kalaikunda "before the scheduled meeting at 2.30 pm, only to show utmost respect to your (the Prime Minister's) office, and to have a meaningful discussion" on the damage, Banerjee mentioned about "revision of the structure" of a meeting between the Prime Minister and a Chief Minister to include a local MLA. Without naming BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari, who was also present besides Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and Minister of State for Woman and Child Development Debasree Chaudhuri, Banerjee wrote in her letter to the Prime Minister: "You had invited the Honourable Governor and some Union Ministers also to the meeting, which I had not objected to (the Governor had no role to play in this meeting either, as per our Constitutional scheme, as you also very well know, but I am refraining from commenting further in this regard as a gesture of propriety and courtesy), but an individual MLA, having no locus, attending the meeting was unacceptable".

Explaining that how federal structure is "gravely endangered and severely undermined" with the "unilateral and non-consultative order", Banerjee also wrote that "if a Chief Secretary of a state can be asked to be relieved like this, how can the lower bureaucracy take, obey and implement orders in their letter or spirit from state Chief Minister, other ministers and officers... I presume you do not want to destroy the morale of all the All India Service officers working in various states across the country".

However, according to the sources, the Centre is likely to take disciplinary action against Bandyopadhyay if he fails to report to Delhi after being summoned by the DoPT.

Banerjee also stated that the "other terms and condition of his service as her Chief Advisor may be decided in concurrence with the Finance department while he would draw a payment of Rs 2.5 lakhs per month and other allowances as admissible to IAS officers from time to time minus basic pension before communication".