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HomeIndiaGovernanceMamata Banerjee retains finance portfolio, with former minister Amit Mitra as advisor

Mamata Banerjee retains finance portfolio, with former minister Amit Mitra as advisor

For the first time in past 4-5 decades a Bengal CM has held the finance portfolio. Senior Trinamool leader Chandrima Bhattacharya is likely to be appointed MoS for Finance.

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Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will retain the finance portfolio, with Dr Amit Mitra, two-term finance minister of the state between 2011 and 2021, being appointed advisor to the Chief Minister on finances, ThePrint has learnt.

Mitra, who could not fight the 2021 assembly elections owing to medical reasons, will be Principal Chief Advisor to the Chief Minister and the Finance Department, Government of West Bengal, and will hold the rank of a cabinet minister

Mamata has been holding the portfolio since the party returned to power in the state in May. This is the first time in the past four-five decades that the West Bengal CM has held the finance portfolio.

In addition to Finance, the CM now holds the other key portfolios of Home and Hill Affairs, Heath and Family Welfare, Land and Land Reforms, Information and Culture, Refugee Relief and Pehabilitation, Personnel and Administrative Reforms, e-Governance, and North Bengal Development.

The decision on Banerjee retaining the finance portfolio and Mitra’s appointment was taken at a cabinet meeting of the Bengal government Tuesday and an official notification is expected soon, a senior official in the Finance Department told The Print.

Chandrima Bhattacharya, a senior Trinamool leader, is likely to be appointed Minister of State for Finance, the official added.

In 2011, Mitra had stepped down from his high-profile position of secretary-general of the corporate lobby group Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) to join Mamata Banerjee.

As the Trinamool candidate from Khardaha in North 25 Parganas, he then defeated Bengal’s former finance minister Ashim Dasgupta. Dasgupta had held the finance portfolio for 24 years, first in former CM Jyoti Basu’s cabinet and then in the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government.


Also read: Bengal’s ex-chief secy takes Modi govt to Central Admin Tribunal over ‘indiscipline’ probe


‘Indispensable’ for CM

Amit Mitra has been with Mamata Banerjee since her days as the union railways minister. She had requested Mitra to head a railway panel to decide on the public-private partnership (PPP) model in railways in 2009-10.

Mitra took charge as finance minister in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet in 2011, when the state was under huge debt — the government had inherited a debt burden of around Rs 2 lakh crore in 2011.

In 2016, Mitra had been made chairman of the empowered committee of state finance ministers then working on the details of the goods and services tax (GST).

Since the beginning of the Covid pandemic in March 2020, Mitra stopped stepping out, citing his medical conditions and comorbidities. For the past two years, he has been working from home, holding virtual meetings with the chief minister and officials, and clearing files through digital signatures.

“Dr Mitra is almost indispensable for the chief minister. She does not take a single decision on finances without consulting him. He has been with madam for the past 12 years or more,” the official mentioned above said.

“That is why she is not giving the portfolio to anyone else. She is retaining it, so that Dr Mitra can run the department as advisor,” he added.

(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)


Also read: Doctor with ‘mental health issues’ sent death threats to Bengal ex-chief secy, police say


 

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