The Mamata Banerjee government has set up different cells headed by senior IAS officers to ensure smooth supply of essential commodities and services across Bengal during the lockdown.

“The chief secretary issued an order engaging one IAS officer for each essential sector. The officers will be responsible for co-ordination with the respective authorities to ensure smooth supply of essential commodities and services. This was done after complaints that supply of essential commodities and services were disrupted in some areas in the past 48 hours,” a senior government official said on Friday.

According to the order issued on Thursday night, agriculture secretary Sunil Gupta would look after the movement of perishable commodities along with environment secretary Prabhat Mishra.

Fisheries secretary S. Kishore will be in charge of essential and civil supplies. Municipal affairs secretary Subrata Gupta will deal with civic services.

Food secretary Manoj Pant will see whether restrictions imposed during the lockdown or its exemptions are followed properly.

Rajesh Pandey, the micro small and medium enterprises department secretary, would ensure smooth supply of masks, hand sanitisers and personal protective gears to hospitals and other institutes, while transport for essential services would be monitored by transport secretary Narayan Nigam.

Finance secretary H.K. Dwivedi would monitor donations to the West Bengal Emergency Relief Fund which was linked to the chief minister’s relief fund on Friday to give income tax relief to contributors.

Santanu Basu, the chairman and managing director of the WBSEDCL, would look after the supply of power and allied services.

The move to make senior civil servants accountable for each sector is considered significant as a section of officials at Nabanna feels chief minister Mamata Banerjee wants to handle the situation more efficiently so that people don’t get restless or angry during the lockdown period.

“The chief minister put senior IAS officers at the helm of affairs after complaints of police excesses had come up. The civil administration always deals with people in a better way as they have grown up dealing with people’s requirements and the process starts from the subdivision level,” said an official.

The chief minister herself expressed dissatisfaction over the role of police during the lockdown on Friday.

“We had received 12 complaints of police excesses, some of which are found to be true. We have closed seven to eight police officers based on the complaints,” Mamata said during a news conference at Nabanna on Friday.

Another section of officials said the chief minister had realised that if the complaints of police excess continues went up, the target of the lockdown — social distancing — could not be achieved.

“People should be kept calm during this crisis and the chief minister knew how to do it. Before complaints against the police go up and the situation goes out of control, the chief minister engaged her top officers to keep things normal in the state,” a senior bureaucrat said.

While Mamata was leaving no stone unturned to ensure smooth supply of essential commodities, she was tough on maintaining social distancing during the lockdown. She again promised to review the situation on March 31 and asked people of the state to keep safe distance from each other while going to markets.

“I had drawn marks in some markets in Calcutta yesterday (Thursday). The same method should be followed at district markets, too. We will again review the situation on March 31,” the chief minister said.