Alapan Bandyopadhyay retired as Chief Secretary and is now Chief Adviser to the Bengal government

New Delhi:

Alapan Bandopadhyay, the officer in the core of the latest flashpoint between Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been served notice by the Centre for skipping a meeting chaired by the PM.

Mr Bandyopadhyay retired yesterday as Bengal’s Chief Secretary and was immediately appointed Chief Adviser to the state government by Mamata Banerjee, who had refused to release him after the Centre ordered his transfer on Friday.

A show-cause notice put out last evening asks him to explain his absence from PM Modi’s meeting on Cyclone Yaas in Bengal. The Centre has served notice under the Disaster Management Act and asked Mr Bandopadhyay to respond within three days.

Mamata Banerjee and her team had on Friday dodged the meeting with PM Modi to review the impact of Cyclone Yaas in Bengal and left after a brief interaction at the air base where the Prime Minister had landed after an aerial review. One of her reasons for doing so was the presence of her former aide-turned-BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari at the meeting.

The Centre later accused her of behaving in an “ugly, disrespectful and arrogant manner” and insulting PM Modi. The same evening, Ms Banerjee’s top officer, Mr Bandopadhyay, received a recall order and was asked to report to the Centre on Monday.

The Centre’s notice steers clear of the fact that he did not do so yesterday.

It focuses on the review meet controversy and says on Friday, PM Modi and other members of his entourage waited for nearly 15 minutes for the officers of the Bengal government to arrive.

“In view of the absence, the Chief Secretary (Mr Bandyopadhay) was called by an official as to whether they wanted to participate in the review meeting or not. Thereafter, Chief Secretary arrived along with Chief Minister of West Bengal inside the meeting room and left thereafter immediately,” the Centre says in the notice.

The notice has been issued on the premise that the meeting that the officer failed to attend involved “affairs of the Centre”.

The law says it’s the state government that can take disciplinary action against an officer working under the state, but in this case, the notice follows the argument that the Chief Secretary “refused to attend” a review meet called by the Centre.