Meeting row: Centre serves show cause notice to former Bengal Chief Secy under DM Act

The ministry of home affairs (MHA) has served a show cause notice to former West Bengal Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay under Disaster Management Act 2005, asking him to write within 3 days, news agency ANI reported.

In an escalating row over Mamata Banerjee skipping meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Alapan Bandyopadhyay had on Monday retired from bureaucracy and was appointed as chief advisor for three years effective to the West Bengal Chief Minister, rendering the order of transfer to Delhi ineffective.

The Centre had on May 28 night transferred Bandyopadhyay to itself and asked the state government to immediately release the top bureaucrat, hours after allegations surfaced that Mamata Banerjee skipped the review meeting with Prime Minister at Kalaikunda airbase over post-cyclone situation in West Bengal.

The West Bengal chief minister had written to PM Modi requesting him to withdraw the Centre’s order recalling the Chief Secretary, and asserted her government “cannot release, and is not releasing” the bureaucrat.

Mamata Banerjee said that the central government had asked Bandopadhyay to report to Delhi’s North Block on Tuesday, but she added an officer cannot join a new office without permission from the state administration.

Earlier during the day, an ANI report, quoting GoI sources, said that Mamata Banerjee has defied protocol in a review meeting chaired by PM Modi on the post-cyclonic situation in the state and is misleading on the controversy surrounding chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay.