Mamata Banerjee on Thursday referred to one of the most deeply entrenched problems of bureaucracy where some senior officials skirt responsibilities in the name of delegation of work.

The chief minister — during an administrative meeting at Netaji Indoor Stadium here — didn’t name anyone, but dwelt on the issue to send out a message that senior officers couldn’t get away just by delegating work to juniors.

“Some senior officers are delegating their responsibilities to junior officers, who are submitting reports without verifying them properly. The grievance cell of the chief minister’s office is not getting proper reports and the process of addressing some grievances is getting delayed. This is a serious lacuna,” said Mamata.

Sources in the administration said the chief minister was not satisfied with the approach of some departmental secretaries and district magistrates and that was why she mentioned the issue at the meeting, which was attended by the top echelons of the state administration and televised live.

The problem occurs, sources said, when the grievance redress cell of the CMO does not receive proper report from the ground.

“For example, if some people complain that they did not get dwelling units under the PM Awas Yojana (Banglar Awas Yojana in Bengal) though they were on the list of beneficiaries, the grievance cell forwards the same to the panchayat department as well the district concerned. If the cell does not get an accurate report, it cannot do anything. So, the officials need to work hard to send a perfect report to the cell so that people’s grievances could be redressed,” said an official.

According to officials, the chief minister is heavily dependent on the grievance redress cell ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

“The top brass of the ruling establishment believes the grievance redress cell of the CMO had helped the chief minister ensure a turnaround after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when the BJP had wrested 18 seats in the state. Soon after the debacle in the Lok Sabha polls, the cell was strengthened and almost 8 lakh grievances were redressed in the following two years. The result was evident in the 2021 Assembly polls when Trinamul returned to power with an overwhelming majority,” said a source.

According to sources, Mamata wanted the grievance redress cell to be active ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

“This unit has become the ears and nose of the top brass of the administration as it gets direct response from people. The cell also works to nip people’s grievances in the bud. The chief minister would not tolerate anything that would weaken the cell’s activities,” said an official.