West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, who was appointed a week ago, has warned officials against “unauthorised absenteeism”, saying “deflection from sincere discharge of official functions shall be viewed as violation of service conduct rules”.

The memorandum was sent ahead of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee holding an administrative review meeting at Nabanna, the state secretariat, on Monday.

“Due to the Parliament elections in March to June, and the bye-elections in some of the districts in June-July, and the restrictions due to the Model Code of Conduct, the implementation of various important projects and public service programmes could not progress at the desired pace. Further, some of the districts were also affected by natural disasters during this period. It is important that the momentum lost during the period of more than four months is overcome through activation in the implementation of projects and programmes and is regained without any further delay,” the letter sent to all top government officials said.

“It has now become necessary to bring efficiency and expediency in the implementation of infrastructure-related projects as well as providing citizen-centric services particularly in rural housing, rural employment, education, health, drinking water and projects and beneficiary schemes for the vulnerable section of the population,” Pant wrote, adding “regular review and monitoring is critical for sustainable impact”.

Monday’s state administrative review meeting has been called for this purpose only, Pant added. “…it is expected that all officials and employees under the state government establishments must now focus diligently on their assigned works and tasks and discharge their duties during their duty hours/ office hours with more devotion, sincerity and earnestness,” the chief secretary concluded.

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