Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Wednesday asked officials of multiple departments to discard practices put in place by the previous Mamata Banerjee government that he felt spawned "corruption and irregularities" and assured bureaucrats that they could work freely.
Suvendu held a meeting at Nabanna Sabhaghar with officials of 41 departments that currently report to the chief minister and apprised them of the vision of the new government.
Separately, urban development and municipal affairs minister Agnimitra Paul asked all 128 urban bodies, including the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, to stop clearing pending payments to contractors for work assigned by the previous government, saying the new dispensation would check whether the tenders were floated in keeping with norms.
At the meeting with officials of the 41 departments, Suvendu said: "I know you had to work in a disturbing atmosphere under the previous government. The new government has a vision, and the meeting is being held to let you know about our plans.”
The Telegraph turns the spotlight on the instructions given by the chief minister at the meeting:
Education
Suvendu said the system of distributing uniforms among schoolchildren should be changed as funds for the scheme had been “misappropriated” by the previous dispensation and the quality of the dresses was also not up to the mark.
The chief minister asked whether Tantuja — a state government undertaking — could take up the responsibility of implementing the state’s uniform scheme.
He directed officials to prepare a detailed expenditure report on the funds received from the Centre under the Samagra Siksha Abhiyan.
“This was the area where maximum corruption had occurred since 2019-20. No government in the country had misappropriated funds like the previous government here did. The report should be sent to me soon,” Suvendu was quoted as saying.
The chief minister also said the School Service Commission would be decentralised and the government would return to the five-zone system of recruitment. That system had been in vogue in the Left era.
“The previous government centralised the system by doing away with the zonal system only to encourage corruption in teacher recruitment,” an official quoted the chief minister as saying.
Suvendu also asked the education department to reempower the district primary school councils, which used to recruit teachers to the primary schools during the Left era. Suvendu said the Trinamool government took away the recruitment power of the district councils to facilitate graft.
Finance
Suvendu questioned the meagre allotment towards capital expenditure proposed in the vote-on-account placed by the previous government in February. The chief minister asked the finance department to prepare a proper budget with a focus on capital expenditure for infrastructure development.
“The chief minister was not happy with the capital outlay of ₹41,300 crore when the state’s total budget proposal was for ₹4 lakh crore. He wants a balanced budget where capital expenditure can be given adequate importance. The department will have to prepare a fresh budget within 15 days as the government plans to table it in the second week of June,” said an official present in the meeting.
The chief minister also asked the finance department to focus on generating more revenue in the fresh budget proposal so that the government can fulfil pre-election promises and also clear dearness allowance dues of employees.
Minority affairs
The chief minister made it clear that the BJP government would not stop the monthly honorarium of imams and muezzins, but said it should be paid directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries through a portal.
When department secretary P.B. Salim said such a portal already existed for direct payments, Suvendu asked him why it had not been used as it would have ensured transparency.
The chief minister asked the department to start paying the honorarium through the portal immediately. As of now, 41,205 imams and 39,028 muezzins get ₹3,000 and ₹2,000, respectively, every month.
Health
The chief minister expressed his displeasure at the system introduced by the previous government for the admission of patients to the medical colleges and hospitals.
“Each government hospital had been virtually leased out to a political leader, and getting patients admitted there was impossible without the consent of that leader. This system should be abolished,” Suvendu was quoted as saying.
The chief minister asked health secretary N.S. Nigam to put in place a smooth admission system.
Information & culture
The chief minister said he wanted to dismantle the existing system in the Bengali film industry and that artistes should not face any trouble in getting work.
The Trinamool regime had been accused of running a “ban culture” in Tollywood that dealt a debilitating blow to the film industry.
“The Kolkata Municipal Commission’s commissioner and the city police commissioner, along with information and cultural affairs department officials, will visit the studios and ensure that there is no unholy practice there,” the chief minister was quoted as saying.
Potato export
Prior to holding the meeting, Suvendu had said his government would allow farmers to take their produce, particularly potatoes, to other states without any problem. The previous government had prevented farmers and traders from doing so, leaving lakhs of peasants in trouble.
Sources said potatoes from Bengal had a robust market in states like Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam, which helped the farmers to get a good price for their produce. But the previous government had frequently issued blanket bans on the export of potatoes in the past 10 years.