In one of its largest administrative rejigs, the West Bengal government on Monday transferred 527 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and West Bengal Civil Service (WBCS) officials ahead of the rollout of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.
“Around 527 IAS and WBCS officers in various ranks including Officers on Special Duty (OSD), directors, special secretaries, district magistrates, additional district magistrates, sub-divisional officers (SDOs) and even BDOs have been transferred,” a senior official at the state secretariat.
Even though the lists were released on Monday, the notifications of the transfers were issued on October 24, a senior official said.
The list of transferred officials include district magistrates of North 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Dakshin Dinajpur, Kalimpong, West Midnapore, South 24 Parganas, Cooch Behar, Murshidabad, Purulia, Darjeeling, Malda, Birbhum, Jhargram and East Midnapore.
It also includes Kolkata Municipal Corporation commissioner Dhaval Jain; UR Ismail, special secretary in state health department; Raju Mishra, special secretary in state industry and commerce department; and Shashank Sethi, managing director of West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation.
The reshuffle has triggered a political storm in the state, with state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders alleging the move was planned to disrupt the SIR exercise.
“The Trinamool Congress (TMC) knows very well that if SIR is rolled out in West Bengal, they won’t be able to stay in power anymore and Mamata Banerjee would become the former chief minister of the state. Hence the TMC has been vehemently opposing the implementation of SIR in the state where elections are due in 2026. The actual motive behind these transfers isn’t clear yet. We have to wait for some time to know whether this transfer is yet another attempt by the TMC government to disrupt the rollout of SIR in the state,” Sajal Ghosh, BJP leader, told the media.
The TMC, however, hit back saying that it was a routine transfer and the TMC doesn’t depend on bureaucrats to win an election.
“Be it 2019, 2021 or 2024, the BJP-led Centre had transferred several officers to get advantage during elections. They think that they can win an election by transferring officers. The TMC depends on the people’s power to win the polls. These are all routine transfers. The opposition can’t find an issue and is hence making this an issue. Such transfers take place throughout the year,” Debangshu Bhattacharya, TMC state spokesperson, said in response.
