Mamata Banerjee to handle Partha's portfolios till cabinet shuffle

 Sources say decision to remove the minister had been taken on Wednesday night when the top brass of the government had gone into a huddle

Mamata Banerjee: File Photo

Pranesh Sarkar   |   TT  |  Calcutta   |    29.07.22  : Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday removed from her cabinet Partha Chatterjee, who had been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with alleged anomalies in School Service Commission recruitment, and took over all his portfolios for the time being.

“We have removed Partha (Chatterjee). After his removal, all the departments he used to look after have come to me until we shuffle the cabinet,” Mamata said during a meeting of the West Bengal Industrial Promotion Board at Soujanya in Alipore, Calcutta, on Thursday.

Before the chief minister’s announcement, the state government issued a notification stating that Chatterjee had been “relieved of his duties as minister in charge” of departments of industry, commerce and enterprises, IT, parliamentary affairs and public enterprises with effect from July 28 afternoon.

Sources in the bureaucracy said the decision was a timely one as the government’s image was getting tarnished by keeping a person against whom graft charges had been levelled. Besides, crores of rupees were recovered from the possession of one of Chatterjee’s close associates.

“The minister was arrested six days ago but at that time, the chief minister wanted to wait for some time until charges were established against him. But when huge money was again recovered from the flat of his close associate at Belghoria last night, the chief minister had no other option than to remove him from the cabinet,” said a senior government official.

The sources said the decision to remove Chatterjee had been taken on Wednesday night when the top brass of the government had gone into a huddle and come to a conclusion that keeping him in the cabinet even after the latest cash haul would tarnish the image of the administration heavily.

“The chief minister lays stress on maintaining transparency in government affairs. This effort would have been hurt if Chatterjee was retained in the cabinet,” said a source.

“According to the decision taken last night, a file was sent to the governor’s house recommending the removal of Chatterjee from the cabinet on Thursday morning. As soon as the file returned to Nabanna, the chief secretary was asked to issue the formal order,” said an official.

Before the order was issued, Mamata had chaired a cabinet meeting but the issue of Chatterjee was not raised there.

“The cabinet meeting was brief. Issues like creation of some posts and proposals related to the land and land reforms department were taken up at the meeting. Soon after the meeting was over, the formal order to remove Parthada was issued,” said a minister.

According to another notification, all the departments which were held by Chatterjee would be looked after by the chief minister.

“The problem is that the chief minister looks after several important departments, including home, health, land and land affairs, information and cultural affairs, planning and statistics. The additional departments will leave an additional burden on the chief minister,” said an official.

A minister has said it is almost certain that the chief minister will reshuffle the cabinet. “She has to redistribute the workload as she cannot manage to look after day-to-day affairs of so many departments. But the date and time of the reshuffle will be decided by the chief minister herself,” said the minister.