Acted as per CM Mamata Banerjee's directive, replies Alapan Bandyopadhyay to Centre's show-cause letter

Sources said ex-Bengal chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay replied to Centre's show-cause letter saying that he acted as per Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's instructions.

Former West Bengal chief secretary responded to Centre's show-cause notice on Thursday. The notice was served to him under the Disaster Management Act asking him to explain his absence from the cyclone-review meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 28.In his reply, the former chief secretary said he had left the meeting as per the directive of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for a review of Cyclone Yaas-ravaged Digha, a town in Purba Medinipur district. The Union Home Ministry had on May 31 served a show-cause notice to Bandyopadhyay under a stringent provision of the Disaster Management Act that entails imprisonment up to two years, amid a tug-of-war between the Centre and the Mamata Banerjee government over him. Bandyopadhyay was set to retire as the chief secretary on May 31, but the state had recently sought and received permission for extension of his tenure for three months as he played a crucial role in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.