Bengal Chief Secretary, Now In Team Mamata, Gets Notice From Centre

A show-cause notice put out last evening asks Alapan Bandopadhyay to explain his absence from PM Modi's meeting on Cyclone Yaas in Bengal.

Alapan Bandopadhyay, the officer in the core of the latest flashpoint between Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been served notice by the Centre for skipping a meeting chaired by the PM. Mr Bandyopadhyay retired yesterday as Bengal's Chief Secretary and was immediately appointed Chief Adviser to the state government by Mamata Banerjee, who had refused to release him after the Centre ordered his transfer on Friday. A show-cause notice put out last evening asks him to explain his absence from PM Modi's meeting on Cyclone Yaas in Bengal. The Centre has served notice under the Disaster Management Act and asked Mr Bandopadhyay to respond within three days. Mamata Banerjee and her team had on Friday dodged the meeting with PM Modi to review the impact of Cyclone Yaas in Bengal and left after a brief interaction at the air base where the Prime Minister had landed after an aerial review. One of her reasons for doing so was the presence of her former aide-turned-BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari at the meeting.