Suvendu Adhikari Writes to Centre for Action against Bengal Chief Secy

The leader of the opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari said that he has written a letter to the department of personnel and training under the Union ministry of personnel, public grievances and pension seeking disciplinary action against the state chief secretary, H.K. Dwivedi.

In the letter, a copy of which the leader of the opposition has also forwarded to the officers of the cabinet secretary and the Union finance secretary, the chief secretary has been accused of flouting his service rules by being a part of a media interaction of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee which the latter used a platform of propaganda against the Union government.

Adhikari has questioned how an all-India service cadre official, who is currently enjoying an extension granted by the Union government only, could make public statements against the Union government in a political press conference conducted by the chief minister.

“I have requested the Union government to initiate disciplinary action against the officer which includes freezing of his retirement benefits,” he said.

Adhikari was referring to a press conference by the chief minister on the comparison between the state debt and central debt figures, where the chief secretary provided statistical data to establish that the West Bengal government was better in terms of debt position than the Union government.

However, the West Bengal minister of state for finance (independent charge) Chandrima Bhattacharya has said that the chief secretary has not flouted any kind of service rule.

“The chief minister updated the media on the financial position of the state visa-a-vis that of the Union government. There is no question of service norms here. Actually BJP being politically isolated are suffering from frustrations and such actions prove that,” she said.

In that particular press conference on August 2, which was jointly attended by the chief minister and the chief secretary, the latter claimed that the total accumulated debt of the Union government in 2014-15 was Rs 62.42 lakh crore, which increased to Rs 152.60 lakh crore currently. Dwivedi also said that in 2011, the year Trinamool Congress regime came to power ousting the 34- year Left Front regime, the debt to gross state domestic product (GSDP) was 40 per cent, which has currently come down to 33 per cent.