KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the time being seems to have chosen stability instead of a radical shift of power.
A reshuffle of the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) is in the offing but Banerjee is still continuing with Chief Secretary Samar Ghosh, Home Secretary G D Gautama and Commissioner of Kolkata Police R K Pachnanda. An IAS officer and four WBCS officers have already been shunted out the CMO. Joint Secretary D P Banerjee, Special Secretary Syed Nasirudin, Private Secretary to CM Sailesh Mukherjee and two other private secretaries to CM were released from the CMO. Principal Secretary to CM Subesh Das may also be asked to leave. While some have been transferred to the state personnel and administrative reforms department, others are kept in compulsory waiting.
There is the possibility of the return of controversial IPS officer Nazrul Islam who is said to have gained Banerjee’s trust in the last couple of years. The 1981 batch IPS officer is currently the Executive Director (Security), Railway Protection Force, serving in the capital. He ran into trouble for criticism of the Left Front government. Islam was the city police’s detective chief and was IG (Enforcement Branch) when transferred.
Banerjee is likely to bring in her Railways Ministry loyalists to fill up vacancies. The names of Gautam Sanyal (Officer on Special Duty to Railways Minister) and Shantanu Basu (Private Secretary to Railways Minister) are doing the rounds. Tapas Chowdhury (Kolkata Municipal Corporation secretary) and Barun Roy (Private Secretary to Union Minister of State for Shipping) may also join the CMO.
There has been an overhaul of police chiefs in the districts as well.