CM meeting with Community an officer, opposition leader says unfair

The Opposition leader and CPI(M) state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury has raised questions over the way in which a recent meeting was held by the Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha at his residence, where  a few selective officers belonging to a particular community attended the meeting.

In a press statement, Chaudhury said that “A good debate has been sparked in the media space, particularly from a section of local dailies and individuals, following one of my posts in social media, with regard to recent one exclusive meeting taken by Hon’ble Chief Minister in his residence, which were attended by few selective (?) Officers belong to a particular community. I welcome this debate.”

He said that ‘now, in continuation to that I am intending to put forward the following questions before the public, interested media friends and the Chief Minister’s Secretariat for the sake of bringing end to the controversies erupted out of that if, it is for accelerating and ensuring better coordination of the Government Departments in implementation of welfare schemes dedicated for a particular community or area, then which Department has convened this meeting?’

He questioned why the Chief Secretary or any senior-most Principal Secretary or Secretary was not present, even though the Chief Minister himself chaired the meeting. According to him, the only officer present was Uttam Kumar Chakma, a retired official currently serving as Secretary to the Governor on re-employment.

“As a standard procedure followed in the government, even if any such multi sectoral meeting is held at the Block level, attended by officers from several departments, then obviously one minutes is brought out immediately by the nodal department and a list of attendees are published. Whether that minute has been brought out and the list of the attendees has been published?” Chaudhury said in his statement and said his questions were intended to seek transparency and accountability from the government and to put an end to the controversies surrounding the meeting.