West Bengal CM Appoints Bengali Woman IAS Officer As State’s Chief Secretary

Before being appointed as the Chief Secretary, Chakraborty was holding the post of the home secretary and was also having additional charge of parliamentary affairs and tourism departments. She is the first woman chief secretary of West Bengal.

Replacing Chakraborty, the chief minister also appointed JP Meena, a 2004-batch IAS officer, as the home secretary of the state.

Ahead of the next round of assembly elections in the state this year and also in view of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, many in the state bureaucracy feel that the Chief Minister has sent a message by appointing Chakravorty as the chief secretary, who has superseded at least six state cadre IAS officers senior to her.

A West Bengal cadre IAS officer, who is on central deputation and posted in the National Capital, said, “Appointment of Chakraborty is a masterstroke of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. She has not only projected a Bengali officer at the helm of the state bureaucracy, but also a woman in command.”

The TMC in the state is eyeing women’s votes with a clearcut aim to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal among women voters, which played a critical role in the recently concluded Bihar assembly elections, where the ruling NDA secured a massive majority. Appointment of Chakravorty is a message to such voters.

Second, the decision showcases the ruling party’s election agenda of igniting Bengali pride among the voters. The Opposition BJP, however, has been trying and playing this card by invoking Bankim Chandra’s ‘Vande Maataram’ and Subhash Chandra Bose.

“More to it the BJP would not be able the attack Chakravorty easily as it used to attack Pant,” the senior Bureaucrat said.

Chakraborty has superseded Atri Bhattacharya, Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Sundarban affairs (1989 Batch), Vivek Kumar (1990-batch), ACS, land and land reforms, Krishna Gupta (1991 batch), ACS, cooperation, Barun Roy (1992 batch), ACS, non-conventional energy, Prabhat Mishra, (1993-batch), ACS, finance, and Roshni Sen (1993-batch), ACS, fisheries department.

Some of these officers were prevented from joining the Union government even after they were enlisted for central deputation by the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT). “If they could not be made the chief secretary, they should have been released earlier for the sake of their career,” said another senior bureaucrat.

Meanwhile, given the trust, which the CM Banerjee has in Manoj Pant, she has appointed him as the principal secretary to the Chief Minister, who will hold the rank of chief secretary. Even though Pant was made the principal secretary to the Chief Minister, there was no word on the position of incumbent Goutam Sanyal, as many in the system believe that there can’t be two principal secretaries to the Chief Minister.

“What I know is that Sanyal, who has been serving with the Chief Minister since she took over as the chief minister in 2011, was seeking relief from the position, citing health reasons. But I am not sure about the current position after Pant was appointed as the new principal secretary to the chief minister,” said a senior official.