CM Mamata reinstates most of transferred officers

Most of these officers were transferred following complaints by the Opposition parties to the Election Commission. Mamata Banerjee in her election meetings had severely criticised the Commission for transferring them without conducting any inquiry.

On Wednesday, four IPS officers including a Superintendent of Police (SP) and three Deputy Commissioners (DC) of the Kolkata Police have been sent to compulsory waiting. One IAS officer has also been sent to compulsory waiting on the very same day.

It may be mentioned that Banerjee had reinstated Rajeev Kumar as the Commissioner of Kolkata Police replacing Soumen Mitra, who was brought in to the post by the Election Commission, within two days of her thumping victory in the Assembly elections. Kumar was transferred following a complaint by BJP that he had shown favouritism to the ruling party. On Wednesday, Bharati Ghosh, who was Officer on Special Duty on Left Wing Extremism and was sent to CID by the EC and was also restricted from entering Midnapore on the day of poll, has become the new SP of West Midnapore.

Kunal Agarwal has been brought back to his post of SP Burdwan from Special Superintendent in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), from where he was transferred by the EC. IPS officers Prasun Banerjee and Arnab Ghosh have been brought back to their respective posts of SP Malda and SP Dakshin Dinajpur. Syed Waqar Raza, who was SP Malda, has been sent to CID as a Special Superintendent.

Bhaskar Mukherjee, the IPS of 2009 batch, has become the new DC of Kolkata Police’s Eastern Sub-urban Division, replacing Dhrubajyoti De, who has been sent to compulsory waiting. Rashid Munir Khan, who had become SP Dakshin Dinajpur as per the order of the EC, replacing Arnab Ghosh before the elections, has also been sent to compulsory waiting.

Two other officers, who were sent to compulsory waiting are the DC South Sub-urban Division (SSD) Santosh Pandey and DC South East Division (SED) Sumanjit Ray. Badana Varun Chandra Sekhar, who was SP West Midnapore, has become the new DC SSD and Gaurav Sharma, who was sent to Burdwan as SP, has been brought back to Kolkata Police as the new DC SED.

Tanmay Ray Chaudhuri has once again become the SP of North 24-Parganas district replacing Annappa E, who was brought in by the EC. Mukesh has become the new SP Birbhum replacing Sabya Sachi Raman Mishra, who has been sent to CID as a Special Superintendent.

There had also been a major change in the IAS cadre. Ajit Ranjan Bardhan, who is the commissioner of Presidency Division, has been given the additional charge of Principal Secretary of Tourism Department. Barun Kumar Ray will handle the additional charge of secretary North Bengal Development Department besides serving as the Commissioner of Jalpaiguri Division.

The IAS officer of 2005 batch Smita Pandey, who was DEO of Kolkata South, has been sent to compulsory waiting at Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department. Pandey was shunted for her alleged closeness to some leaders of the alliance.

Manmeet Kaur Nanda, who was district magistrate (DM) of North 24-Parganas, has become the secretary of Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department. 

The new DM of North 24-Parganas is Antara Acharya. Rashmi Kamal has become the new DM of East Midnapore replacing Antara Acharya and PB Salim has been brought back to South 24-Parganas as DM. Dibyendu Sarkar has become the Commissioner of Panchayat and Rural Development Department.