In a landmark administrative move, all former bureaucrats currently occupying crucial positions in the West Bengal government have been asked to stop going to their offices with immediate effect. State Chief Secretary Dushyant Nariala (IAS:1993:WB) has reportedly issued an order to this effect on Wednesday.
The move comes just a few days ahead of a change of guard in the state following the assembly election results. Just a few days ago, the CS had imposed an embargo on all government files and documents.
This major administrative directive is being viewed as a decisive turnaround on the practice of retaining retired bureaucrats in key administrative roles in the state govt.
Needless to point out that like usual practice, many of them had been given extensions or re-employed in senior positions under the Mamata Banerjee govt.
According to secretariat sources, the directive applies across departments, affecting retired IAS and other state service officers who were holding crucial positions like advisors, special secretaries, and heads of various projects and commissions.
The move is seen as a signal to the forthcoming overhaul of the bureaucracy and restoration of regular cadre-based appointments.
On the other hand, following the BJP’s landslide victory in the elections, three former chief secretaries, Alapan Bandyopadhyay and Hari Krishna Dwivedi, resigned from their positions as Chief Advisors to Mamata Banerjee, and Manoj Pant resigned as Principal Secretary to the CM. An official pointed out that apart from Bandyopadhyay, Dwivedi, and Pant, several other retired officers serving as advisers and OSDs in different departments have also resigned, though details are unavailable at the moment. These former bureaucrats have long been known as Mamata’s close aides.
Critics had long alleged that the practice of employing former bureaucrats undermined opportunities for serving officers and created a parallel power structure loyal to the previous dispensation.
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