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KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee shifted her glare on Monday from the usual suspects like BJP to her own, surprising even her inner circle with a public takedown of some “errant” cabinet colleagues, Trinamool Congress functionaries, and administration officials found wanting in various respects.
In her sharpest public criticism to date of ministerial and administrative performance, Mamata set a 10-day deadline for everyone to sha-pe up or ship out.
From ministers to bureaucrats, municipalities to the state urban development department, police to district heads, everyone seemed to be in Mamata’s firing line as she scanned their report cards. “It is my turn to speak today and yours to listen,” she told the audience of civic body chiefs, ministers, MLAs and senior officials.
As many in her range of firing visibly squirmed, Mamata named fire services minister and Bidhannagar MLA Sujit Bose, accusing him of encouraging encroachments in Kolkata’s Rajarhat and in front of Salt Lake Sector V’s Webel Bhavan. She also accused state food processing minister and Howrah (Central) MLA Arup Roy and Howrah (North) MLA Goutam Chowdhury of extortion. TOI tried to contact both for comment, but they didn’t respond. The CM charged Bally Municipality administrator Amrita Roy Burman with dereliction of duty.
“Have you seen Hatibagan’s state? I made the city so beautiful. But now, a new OC (of a police station) comes and immediately brings in new illegal settlers. The situation is similar in Gariahat, where hawkers have brought back plastic sheds. Police and civic officials see everything but do nothing. Some are working only to make money,” Mamata said. “How much money do you need to lead a good life? You are going around in big cars, dining at fancy restaurants. Everything is fine, but first think of the people. I see many of you going around in cars with beacons. Even I don’t (do that).” Her 70-minute tirade at Nabanna, the state secretariat, came 20 days after the Lok Sabha verdict, which saw Trinamool trumping BJ-12 in Bengal, albeit with some unexpected setbacks in the urban belt.
To Trinamool functionaries, she said that those indulging in extortion or doing shoddy work would be thrown out of the party. She said tickets for future elections would be given out based solely on performance. “I don’t want ‘master’ extortionists. I want people’s servants,” she said, as the municipal corporations of Howrah, Bidhannagar, and Siliguri copped the bulk of her criticism. Mamata listed improper waste management, water supply, electricity wastage, parking rackets and extortion among the ills afflicting the state.
She announced a key change in the govt tender process. Civic bodies are no longer authorised to give out contracts. Instead, a committee comprising the chief secretary and secretaries of home, finance, land and irrigation departments, police commissioners and an officer of the rank of additional director-general of police will oversee the process.
She also issued show-cause notices to the sub-divisional officers in charge of civic bodies in Howrah, Haldia and Cooper’s Camp (Nadia).”Why should the govt’s image be tarnished because of the misdeeds of a few? If I can see malpractice, why can’t you? Why are the roads dirty? Should I even have to sweep streets now?” she said.
In her sharpest public criticism to date of ministerial and administrative performance, Mamata set a 10-day deadline for everyone to sha-pe up or ship out.
From ministers to bureaucrats, municipalities to the state urban development department, police to district heads, everyone seemed to be in Mamata’s firing line as she scanned their report cards. “It is my turn to speak today and yours to listen,” she told the audience of civic body chiefs, ministers, MLAs and senior officials.
As many in her range of firing visibly squirmed, Mamata named fire services minister and Bidhannagar MLA Sujit Bose, accusing him of encouraging encroachments in Kolkata’s Rajarhat and in front of Salt Lake Sector V’s Webel Bhavan. She also accused state food processing minister and Howrah (Central) MLA Arup Roy and Howrah (North) MLA Goutam Chowdhury of extortion. TOI tried to contact both for comment, but they didn’t respond. The CM charged Bally Municipality administrator Amrita Roy Burman with dereliction of duty.
“Have you seen Hatibagan’s state? I made the city so beautiful. But now, a new OC (of a police station) comes and immediately brings in new illegal settlers. The situation is similar in Gariahat, where hawkers have brought back plastic sheds. Police and civic officials see everything but do nothing. Some are working only to make money,” Mamata said. “How much money do you need to lead a good life? You are going around in big cars, dining at fancy restaurants. Everything is fine, but first think of the people. I see many of you going around in cars with beacons. Even I don’t (do that).” Her 70-minute tirade at Nabanna, the state secretariat, came 20 days after the Lok Sabha verdict, which saw Trinamool trumping BJ-12 in Bengal, albeit with some unexpected setbacks in the urban belt.
To Trinamool functionaries, she said that those indulging in extortion or doing shoddy work would be thrown out of the party. She said tickets for future elections would be given out based solely on performance. “I don’t want ‘master’ extortionists. I want people’s servants,” she said, as the municipal corporations of Howrah, Bidhannagar, and Siliguri copped the bulk of her criticism. Mamata listed improper waste management, water supply, electricity wastage, parking rackets and extortion among the ills afflicting the state.
She announced a key change in the govt tender process. Civic bodies are no longer authorised to give out contracts. Instead, a committee comprising the chief secretary and secretaries of home, finance, land and irrigation departments, police commissioners and an officer of the rank of additional director-general of police will oversee the process.
She also issued show-cause notices to the sub-divisional officers in charge of civic bodies in Howrah, Haldia and Cooper’s Camp (Nadia).”Why should the govt’s image be tarnished because of the misdeeds of a few? If I can see malpractice, why can’t you? Why are the roads dirty? Should I even have to sweep streets now?” she said.
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