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News Desk: The centre has issued an order to recall West Bengal’s top bureaucrat from the state on a day a row broke out over a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Bengal Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay’s tenure was extended for three months only four days ago, before Friday’s order to recall him to the centre came.
The centre has asked Bengal to send Mr Bandyopadhyay to the Department of Personnel and Training’s office in Delhi by May 31 morning.
The development comes hours after Ms Banerjee skipped a meeting with PM Modi to assess the impact of Cyclone Yaas, choosing instead a quick 15-minute interaction with him at an airbase where his flight landed. She was to attend a cyclone damage review with PM Modi but left after handing him a report. The centre alleged Ms Banerjee kept PM Modi and governor Jagdeep Dhankhar waiting for half-an-hour.
The Trinamool Congress criticised the centre’s move to recall the top officer. “Has this ever happened since Independence? Forced central deputation of a Chief Secretary of a state. How much lower will Modi-Shah’s BJP stoop? All because people of Bengal humiliated the duo and chose Mamata Banerjee with an overwhelming mandate,” Trinamool MP Sukhendu Sekhar Ray said.
