Centre, West Bengal at loggerheads over chief secy Alapan Bandyopadhyay; an overview of the controversy

Barely weeks after Mamata Banerjee was elected as West Bengal chief minister for a third term, the Centre and state government are engaged in a tug-of-war over Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay . Banerjee on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to withdraw the Centre’s order recalling Bandyopadhyay, and said her government ‘is not releasing’ the top bureaucrat. The Centre had asked Bandyopadhyay to report to the Union department of personnel, public grievances and pensions (DoPT) in New Delhi on Monday. As he has not done so, the Centre is expected to initiate disciplinary action against him, Hindustan Times reported. Here is a look at why the Centre and the West Bengal government are at loggerheads over the issue: Centre’s order recalling Bandopadhyay Bandyopadhyay, a 1987-batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre, was scheduled to retire on 31 May after completion of 60 years of age. Banerjee had written to Modi urging him to grant Bandyopadhyay an extension for at least six months in view of his experience of handling the COVID-19 pandemic. He was granted a three-month extension following a nod from the Centre. In a communique to the state government, the Personnel Ministry on Friday said the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the placement of the services of Bandyopadhyay with Government of India as per provisions of the Indian Administrative Service (cadre) Rules, 1954, “with immediate effect”. The order from the Centre angered the Trinamool Congress which said the decision to seek Bandyopadhyay’s services was because the people of the state gave an overwhelming mandate to the chief minister. TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said the decision was taken to derail the good work done by Bandyopadhyay, “a true soldier of Mamata Banerjee”. Bandopadhyay, as the chief secretary, has been the face of West Bengal’s fight against the coronavirus. He has been the link between the Centre and the TMC government during the COVID-19 review meetings of the prime minister and chief ministers, as noted by India Today. Banerjee has skipped most of these meetings. The face-off between the Centre and West Bengal comes days after another controversy over Banerjee skipping a meeting with Modi in the state on Cyclone Yaas . A host of BJP leaders, including JP Nadda and Rajnath Singh, strongly criticised the West Bengal chief minister over the issue. Legal position The IAS cadre rules say that a cadre officer may, with the concurrence of the state governments concerned and the central government, be deputed for service under the central government or another state government. “Provided that in case of any disagreement, the matter shall be decided by the central government and the state government or state governments concerned shall give effect to the decision of the central government,” it says. Thus, there is some ambiguity in terms of whose decision should be deemed as final in case of a disagreement. An article in The Print has quoted former DoPT secretary Satyanand Misra as saying that the central government’s writ should ideally reign supreme in such situations but the civil service rules don’t lay down what happens if the state refuses to comply. This is the second time that the Union government has invoked the All India Services Rule in the last five months. Earlier in December, the Centre had directed the West Bengal government to immediately relieve three IPS officers so that they could join their new assignments at the Centre. The officers, Rajeev Mishra (1996 batch), Praveen Tripathi (2004 batch) and Bholanath Pandey (2011 batch), were directed to report on central deputation in December last year after the West Bengal government refused to send its chief secretary and police chief to Delhi to discuss the law and order situation in the state. The three were responsible for the security of BJP president JP Nadda during his visit to the state for building up momentum for electioneering when his convoy was attacked at Diamond Harbour. However, according to the officials, these three officers were never released by the state government. With inputs from PTI