Nabanna bureaucrats cold to plan to hire experts : The state government has already selected 50 senior professionals for 24 departments through personality tests

Nabanna. File picture

Pranesh Sarkar   |   TT  |  Calcutta   |   04.05.22 : The recent plan to appoint consultants from the corporate world to make the Bengal government future-ready has run into rough weather apparently owing to resistance from some senior bureaucrats, sources in Nabanna have said.

The state government has selected 50 senior professionals for 24 departments through personality tests. However, their appointments are yet to be approved by the top brass of the government since some senior bureaucrats have “expressed reservations” that it could come in the way of the day-to-day functioning of the government.

“The file to issue appointment letters to selected consultants has been sent to the 14th floor of Nabanna (where chief minister Mamata Banerjee sits)... But it appears that the process has been put on hold as some senior bureaucrats raised questions over appointing these consultants,” a source in Nabanna said.

According to insiders, initially it was planned that consultants would be posted in the departments for fresh ideas to run government schemes and make them more attractive and people-friendly.

Later, the plan was tweaked to send consultants to be a part of the chief minister’s office.

“The original plan was tweaked to make the CMO’s office more dynamic on the lines of the Prime Minister’s Office where experts from all fields give regular feedback to the Prime Minister,” said a senior government official.

But this apparently did not go down well with some bureaucrats.

A bureaucrat admitted to The Telegraph that they had reservations about the plan to hire consultants.

“If this plan is implemented, there will be parallel governance as (officials in the) departments and experts in the CMO may not be on the same page on all the issues. This can make things complicated,” said the bureaucrat.

He said that hiring consultants for running existing schemes or planning new schemes was fine in theory, but their roles had to be clearly defined first.

“They (the consultants) can assist the departments. Their roles have to be framed in a manner that does not create a parallel governance,” said another bureaucrat.

Some officials said that the resistance from these bureaucrats cropped up only when it was planned to refurbish the CMO.

“Currently, the CMO’s role is limited in terms of finalising the schedule of the chief minister. The prospect of a wider role of the CMO is not appreciated by the bureaucrats... That’s why the appointment of the consultants is facing resistance,” said a source.