The chief minister’s office (CMO) will continue to remain headless. Sanjay Mitra, who had been earlier tipped off to be the principal secretary to chief minister Mamata Banerjee, is returning to the state government on Tuesday but he is not being posted as principal secretary.Mr Mitra, a 1982-batch IAS officer of the Bengal cadre, was posted at the PMO as its joint secretary since November 22, 2004.
After Ms Banerjee took over the reins of the state as chief minister, she requested the Centre to release two of the Bengal cadre IAS officers, Mr Mitra and Barun Kumar Ray, a 1992-batch officer, so that they could come to the state and join the CMO. It was also decided by the state that Mr Mitra would be the principal secretary to the CM and the head of the CMO. The post was lying vacant after the new state government transferred Subesh Das to the science and technology department in May-end.
“It is really surprising that Mr Mitra will not head the CMO. Considering his vast experience in the PMO, the chief minister herself had originally decided to bring Mr Mitra to the CMO as its head, especially when she structured her office in line with the PMO. However, nobody knows why the decision has been changed at the last moment,” a high-level source in the state government said.
The post of the principal secretary to the chief minister is considered very vital. Earlier, some distinguished IAS officers, like Subir Dutta, Bhaskar Ghosh, S.N. Menon and Anish Majumdar among others, had served in this position. Ms Banerjee’s surprise decision to not bring Mr Mitra means that Gautam Sanyal, a Central Secretariat Service officer, will remain at the helm of affairs in the CMO without holding any official portfolio.