Chief minister Mamata Banerjee called out superintendent of police, East Midnapore, Amarnath K, at an administrative review meeting here on Thursday for allegedly not performing as expected.
The chief minister also went on to ask the officer whether he was under any sort of “political pressure” and if governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was calling him to pass on instructions.
“I’m getting complaints about your district. Some people are hatching plans to incite riots there. I’ve been telling you people for a long time. But you didn’t act. Hence, I had to intervene,” Mamata said.
“Are you afraid of working there? Does the governor call you? Don’t do this and that? …You don’t need to listen. Remember you’re an officer of the state government,” she added and asked Amarnath to get in touch with her directly if he faced political problems in the district.
East Midnapore is the home district of Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari, who had defeated Mamata in last year’s Assembly election in Nandigram.
Mamata also told Amarnath to follow the way district magistrate of East Midnapore, Purnendu Maji, functioned. “Purnendu is working. Learn from him,” she said.
Responding to Mamata pulling up the senior cop, Adhikari said the “the defeat (in Nandigram) continued to haunt the chief minister”.
Bengal BJP’s chief Sukanta Majumdar said: “The chief minister is forcing the officer to work for Trinamul. They work for the state, not for Trinamul.”
CPM’s Shamik Lahiri said: “The chief minister doesn’t believe in following rules laid down to govern a state. She is threatening IAS and IPS officers to follow her instructions ahead of the civic polls. She could have spoken to him personally. What is the point of this media trial?”
Mamata also referred to a recent incident where two members of Trinamul’s trade union were arrested from Haldia for interrupting the operations at an Exide battery plant.
“I received a complaint from Haldia and I had to get two people arrested. They were creating problems for the Dhanukas and Exide. Why would I need to intervene when you all are there?” she said.