The West Bengal Cabinet, led by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, will hold its first meeting at 11 am on Monday at Nabanna, the state secretariat.
Sources said that the portfolios of the five ministers – Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Nisith Pramanik, Kshudiram Tudu, and Ashok Kirtania, who took oath on Saturday – will also be announced.
Adhikari, who was in his hometown Contai in Purba Medinipur district on Sunday, will also hold his first meeting with top police officers, including district police chiefs and officials of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at Nabanna.
“We have reviewed security today. We have a meeting with the chief minister at 5 pm,” Kolkata Police Commissioner Ajay Nand told mediapersons after visiting Nabanna.
The meeting with the top police officers will take place in the backdrop of alleged post-poll violence in the state, including the murder of Adhikari’s personal secretary Chandranath Rath, on the outskirts of Kolkata on May 6.
Sources indicated that a major reshuffle among the IAS and IPS officers is on the cards. “Before the Assembly polls, the Election Commission had transferred a large number of administrative and police officers. The government is yet to decide how many of those officials who were transferred during the election will be reinstated in prominent and responsible posts and how many of them will remain in shunted posts,” said a senior BJP leader.
Meanwhile, the new BJP government appointed two IAS officers and seven West Bengal Civil Services (Executive) officers at the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO).
P Promoth, currently serving as joint secretary in the MSME and Textiles Department, and Navneet Mittal, ADM of Paschim Medinipur, were appointed as joint secretaries in the CMO with immediate effect, a government notification said.
The seven WBCS (Executive) officers were posted as senior deputy secretaries in the CMO.
Officials currently serving in departments such as Housing, Fisheries, and Land Reforms, besides various districts, were among those given new assignments in the reshuffle.
The new administration had on Saturday reassigned 16 officers, who were posted in the CMO when Mamata Banerjee was the chief minister. Retired IAS officer Subrata Gupta was appointed the adviser to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, hours after he was sworn in, while Shantanu Bala was named the CM’s private secretary.
Adhikari, who returned to Kolkata Sunday evening, will move to a state-run guest house in Alipore, a senior official said on Sunday.
The government guest house, ‘Soujanya’, located on Judges Court Road in south Kolkata, was built in 2018 to host VVIPs and state guests. Until now, Adhikari had been staying at an apartment in the Chinar Park area on the northern fringes of the city during visits to Kolkata.
The date of his formal shift has not yet been finalised, an official said.
Adhikari spent most of Sunday at his home, Shanti Kunja, in Contai, where thousands gathered to meet him. At the request of Adhikari’s family, no guardrails were placed near their home.
Before leaving for Kolkata, Adhikari said, “Bhoy (fear) out, bhorsa (trust) in. Prime Minister Narendra Modiji has given this assurance. West Bengal will progress with the involvement of every stakeholder in an atmosphere of hope and trust.”
Meanwhile, Cabinet Minister Dilip Ghosh, who visited a fish festival at Amherst Street in Kolkata along with party MLA Tapas Roy, said, “We have just taken oath. That was just the beginning. We are yet to get the charge. Departments will be decided, and more ministers will come in. Then we will start working.”
In Bankura, Cabinet Minister Tudu said steps will be taken against fake SC and ST certificates. “It will be our priority. We will investigate and take action against people with fake ST and SC certificates,” he said.
Agnimitra Paul was seen visiting the Kalighat temple on Sunday.