Centre calls top officials, Bengal demurs- called the Bengal chief secretary and the DGP to New Delhi in connection with the attack on convoy of BJP national president

The Union home ministry had sought a report from the state government on Thursday on the attack on Nadda’s convoy

Bengal chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay: File picture

Pranesh Sarkar, Imran Ahmed Siddiqui   |   TT   |   Calcutta, New Delhi   |   12.12.20  :  The Centre has called the Bengal chief secretary and the director-general of police to New Delhi next week in connection with the stoning of some cars in the convoy of the BJP national president but the state government has requested the Union home secretary to “dispense with” the presence of the two officials.

“While further reports are being obtained and compiled, in the circumstances, I am directed to request you to kindly dispense with the presence of the state officials in the meeting, considering that the state government is already addressing this issue with utmost seriousness,” Bengal chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said in a letter to Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla on Friday.

The chief secretary sent the letter after the Union home ministry asked him and DGP Virendra to be in Delhi on Monday for a meeting on law and order in Bengal.

The Union home ministry had sought a report from the state government on Thursday on the attack on Nadda’s convoy, and the summons to the officials came on Friday. A former special secretary in the Union home ministry in Delhi described the Centre’s action without waiting for the state’s report as unprecedented and political.

“The two officials have been summoned on the basis of a report from Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar that he sent on Friday morning on the law-and-order situation in the state,” an official in the Union home ministry said.

Officials in Calcutta said they were surprised that the chief secretary -- an IAS officer – had been summoned by the Union home ministry.

“The cadre-controlling authority for IAS officers is the DoPT (department of personnel and training, which reports to the PMO), and the home ministry has no authority to summon the chief secretary. The home ministry can summon the DGP as it is the cadre-controlling authority for IPS officers,” an official said.

The chief secretary’s letter, a Nabanna source said, was written to explain the “ground reality”.

In the letter, the chief secretary detailed the steps that had been taken to provide security to Nadda and the action taken after the incident.

The letter said the state government had posted four additional SPs, eight deputy SPs, 14 inspectors, 70 sub-inspectors and additional sub-inspectors, 40 RAF personnel, 259 constables and 350 members of the auxiliary forces on the route and at the programme venue in Diamond Harbour. Nadda was on his way to Diamond Harbour to address a rally.

“In addition, the state government had provided a bullet-proof car and a pilot to Nadda,” the letter said.

Bandyopadhyay referred to the possible reasons behind the incident despite such a heavy deployment of forces.

“The tagging of many vehicles to the protectee convoys, however, made the situation unwieldy, because typically, security authorities are to handle a protectee convoy of a few vehicles only,” the chief secretary wrote.

He listed the steps initiated by the state government after the incident to make it clear that the administration was not sitting idle.

“Further, 3 cases have already been registered in this connection, while 2 of them are specifically for vandalism, one each in Usthi PS and Falta PS, both under the Diamond Harbour police district. 7 persons have been arrested in these 2 cases,” the letter said.