Mamata Banerjee on Thursday set up a task force and a group of ministers (GoM) to run the day-to-day affairs in the state during her visit to the UK between March 21 and 28.
“The task force will consist of Vivek Kumar (land and land reforms secretary), Prabhat Mishra (finance secretary), Nandini Chakravorty (home secretary), Rajeev Kumar (DGP) and Manoj Verma (city police commissioner). They will coordinate with all departments and districts and keep monitoring each issue, including natural disasters and law and order,” the chief minister told journalists at Nabanna.
In addition to the task force, Mamata also set up a GoM to look after the affairs in Bengal in her absence. The GoM includes Chandrima Bhattacharya, MoS (independent charge), Sashi Panja (industry minister), Sujit Bose (fire and emergency services minister), Aroop Biswas (power minister) and Firhad Hakim (urban development minister).
The chief minister made it clear that the GoM would hold discussions with the task force at Nabanna every day but they would not be able to take any decision.
“In case of emergency, they will contact me and the chief secretary, who will be visiting (UK) with me. But they will not take any policy decision,” said the chief minister.
Sources said Mamata didn’t want to give a special position to anybody in the government ahead of the Assembly polls as this could lead to confusion. “It is clear she does not want to project anybody as number 2 in her government,” said an official.
There is no hard and fast rule that somebody has to be given the charge to run the state in the absence of the chief minister. During the Left Front regime, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee used to play the role of acting chief minister in the absence of Jyoti Basu. But during the Trinamul Congress regime, Mamata has never given the charge of acting chief minister to anyone in her absence, the sources said.
In the past, Mamata had authorised senior ministers like Firhad Hakim, Partha Chatterjee — till he was arrested on charges of recruitment irregularities — to look after the daily affairs in the government during her absence.
“Senior secretaries, including the finance secretary and the home secretary, used to assist the senior ministers. But this time, a formal task force and a GoM have been formed,” said an official.
The chief minister said she usually visited foreign countries in a gap of two years as she could not leave the state because of several issues, including natural disasters.
“Bengal is surrounded by rivers and seas. Natural disasters hit the state often. Some people always conspire against the state. This is why I could not even visit Delhi,” she said.
“Many countries participate in our Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) and some become our partner countries. They want us to visit their country as they intend to invest in the state. The UK was the partner country in this year’s BGBS,” added Mamata.
She said Japan had also invited her but she could not consider the invitation because of Eid and Basanti Puja.
Giving an idea of her schedule in the UK, the chief minister said there would be an event at the India High Commission on March 24, a BGBS-related programme on March 25 and a business meet on March 26. She will also attend an event at Oxford University’s Kellogg College on March 27. At the Kellogg College event, Mamata will be in conversation with the academic institution’s president Jonathan Michie and Bynum Tudor Fellow at Kellogg Lord Karan Bilimoria. The discussion will be on the topic of “Social development – Girl, child and women empowerment”.
The chief minister in a veiled attack labelled the Opposition as “ganashatru (enemy of the people)” for allegedly spreading misinformation about her trip to the UK.
“To attack me, they are defaming Bengal and the people of the state will not tolerate that,” she said.
Nagpur violence
At the press meet, Mamata condemned the communal violence at Nagpur in Maharashtra.
“See, I do not endorse any kind of violence. When we were in the Opposition, we never backed any riots or communal tension...,” said Mamata.