The acrimony between Raj Bhawan and Nabanna, the state secretariat on the other side of river Hooghly, is likely to spill onto the approaching year as Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has raised questions and sought clarifications from chief minister Mamata Banerjee and state chief secretary H.K. Dwivedi over recruitments of consultants and senior consultants to various departments of the administration.
“Serious issues have been raised from several quarters regarding this matter in respect of the lack of transparency, accountability and modalities of the selection process of these consultants,” Dhankhar wrote on Tuesday in a letter to the government referring to the November 26 government advertisement listing the jobs.
The advertisement for the jobs was issued by the personnel and administrative reforms department, which is under the chief minister’s control. The last date for submission of applications was December 20.
The remuneration for the two posts, without dearness allowance and house rent allowance, was decided at Rs 2 lakh per month for senior consultants and Rs 1.5 lakh for consultants, with a government vehicle provided for the selected nominees for two years, which could be extended.
Applications were sought from people from different fields between the age of 35 and 70, with a minimum ten-year experience in a particular field. The Governor has remarked the upper age limit for the recruitment was “unusual”.
“The mechanism spelt out leaves all to be desired from the perspective of transparency and fairness. The declared selection mechanism is ex facie subjective, sketchy and arbitrary and does not appear to be fair, equitable on account of absence of specific details relating to this in the public domain. This tailor-made mechanism has all the trappings of extending favouritism and patronage,” the Governor wrote.
Chief secretary Dwivedi has been given a week’s time to give his reply.
The notification issued by the state government says the candidates will be judged on the basis of the information and supporting documents they provide with the application and those eligible will be called for a personality test.
The ties between Governor Dhankhar and the Trinamul, particularly the chief minister, have remained testy throughout his tenure spilling over from Mamata Banerjee’s second to third term. Earlier this month, the Governor had flagged a Bill passed by the state government at the Assembly bifurcating the Howrah Municipal Corporation and Bally Municipality.
The tussle has forced a delay in announcing elections to the Howrah Municipal Corporation which was scheduled to go to polls along with Calcutta Municipal Corporation on December 19. While elections to Siliguri, Chandernagore, Asansol and Bidhannagar Municipal Corporations have been declared for January 22, 2022, Howrah will have to wait till the matter is resolved.
Dhankhar was also vocal about post-poll violence after the Assembly elections and even visited families of some of the victims.