Kolkata: In a reshuffle Wednesday, the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal transferred some of the top IPS officers.
Four additional director generals (ADGs) and an inspector general (IG)-ranked officers were transferred from their positions. These are the second and third most important positions in the IPS.
The move also includes the transfer of the CM’s own security director.
The BJP said that these transfers were made keeping next year’s assembly elections in mind, but senior civil servants called it a “routine” organisational rejig.
Who all were transferred
According to the order issued Wednesday evening, Vineet Kumar Goyal, who was the director of the chief minister’s security, will now head Bengal’s Special Task Force (STF).
Vivek Sahay, who was the ADG, Traffic and Road Safety, will take Goyal’s place.
Ajay Kumar, who was heading the Counter Insurgency Force (CIF), was appointed as the new ADG, Traffic and Road Safety.
The CIF will now be headed by Ajay Nand, who was heading the STF of Bengal Police. It was Nand who had raised the CIF that had led the anti-Maoist operations during the Lalgarh movement in 2010-11.
‘Mamata Banerjee runs a police state’
On the IPS reshuffle, BJP National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said most of the civil servants in Bengal are committed to the Trinamool Congress and not the Constitution.
“Mamata Banerjee runs a police state. She does not have workers. She has police. From ground level to top level, she is now making her structure ready and that is why this reshuffle.
“No election can be free and fair under her police administration. Election Commission will take the final call on their postings,” he added.
A senior civil servant, who didn’t want to be named, however, said these are “routine” transfers.
In May, Banerjee had shunted out her highest-ranking civil servant in the health department right in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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