The Bengal finance department issued a memorandum on Thursday asking all departments to frame policies with the approval of the state cabinet or the chief minister while mentioning that some wings of the government had taken certain decisions recently bypassing the process.
Sources at Nabanna said the chief minister had raised the issue with some ministers and top government officials after a cabinet meeting on Thursday afternoon.
“The chief minister was unhappy with some of the decisions like imposing restrictions on use of water bodies during the Chhath by a few departments. The chief minister expressed displeasure as she was not informed about the decision and the departments issued the orders on their own. The CMC was then given the responsibility to develop some other waterbodies so that Hindi speaking people don’t face trouble to observe Chhath in the city,” said a source.
The sources said Mamata Banerjee was not happy with frequent changes of policies for procuring agriculture produces, some of which were taken without her knowledge. “At the cabinet meeting, she issued a warning in this regard and soon after, the finance department issued the memorandum,” said another source.
The memorandum assumed significance as it was the first of its kind since Mamata took over as the chief minister.
“This is important because it sends a message that everything is not well in the government,” said a senior bureaucrat.
The memorandum made it clear that taking policy decisions without the approval of the cabinet or the chief minister was being considered as a “very serious matter”.
“It has recently being seen that in few instances the individual departments have taken policy decisions on important issues on their own without the approval of the State Cabinet or Hon'ble Chief Minister. This is a very serious matter,” the memorandum reads.
In another development, state government has transferred tourism secretary Atri Bhattacharya to consumer affairs department and food processing secretary Nandini Chakraborty to the tourism department.
