In one in all its largest administrative rejigs, the West Bengal authorities on Monday transferred 527 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and West Bengal Civil Service (WBCS) officers forward of the rollout of the particular intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls within the state.
“Round 527 IAS and WBCS officers in numerous ranks together with Officers on Particular Responsibility (OSD), administrators, particular secretaries, district magistrates, extra district magistrates, sub-divisional officers (SDOs) and even BDOs have been transferred,” a senior official on the state secretariat.
Despite the fact that the lists had been launched on Monday, the notifications of the transfers had been issued on October 24, a senior official mentioned.
The listing of transferred officers embody district magistrates of North 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Dakshin Dinajpur, Kalimpong, West Midnapore, South 24 Parganas, Cooch Behar, Murshidabad, Purulia, Darjeeling, Malda, Birbhum, Jhargram and East Midnapore.
It additionally consists of Kolkata Municipal Company commissioner Dhaval Jain; UR Ismail, particular secretary in state well being division; Raju Mishra, particular secretary in state business and commerce division; and Shashank Sethi, managing director of West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Growth Company.
The reshuffle has triggered a political storm within the state, with state Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP) leaders alleging the transfer was deliberate to disrupt the SIR train.
“The Trinamool Congress (TMC) is aware of very nicely that if SIR is rolled out in West Bengal, they gained’t be capable to keep in energy anymore and Mamata Banerjee would change into the previous chief minister of the state. Therefore the TMC has been vehemently opposing the implementation of SIR within the state the place elections are due in 2026. The precise motive behind these transfers isn’t clear but. Now we have to attend for a while to know whether or not this switch is yet one more try by the TMC authorities to disrupt the rollout of SIR within the state,” Sajal Ghosh, BJP chief, instructed the media.
The TMC, nonetheless, hit again saying that it was a routine switch and the TMC doesn’t rely upon bureaucrats to win an election.
“Be it 2019, 2021 or 2024, the BJP-led Centre had transferred a number of officers to get benefit throughout elections. They suppose that they will win an election by transferring officers. The TMC relies on the folks’s energy to win the polls. These are all routine transfers. The opposition can’t discover a problem and is therefore making this a problem. Such transfers happen all year long,” Debangshu Bhattacharya, TMC state spokesperson, mentioned in response.
