Retirement gift: Chief Secy retained as Bengal Govt’s Chief Financial Advisor

Kolkata: The West Bengal Government gave a retirement gift to the outgoing state Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi just a day after his retirement.

Dwivedi, who retired on Sunday after enjoying an extension of six months in the chair, was replaced as Chief Secretary by the erstwhile Home Secretary BP Opelika.

However, on Monday, he was made the Chief Financial Advisor to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Insiders within the state secretariat said that Dwivedi has experience in efficiently handling financial matters as he was the Additional Chief Secretary in the state’s finance department for an extended period.

“The Chief Minister was keen to retain him as the Chief Financial Advisor to utilise his experience and expertise in handling the financial affairs of the state,” said a senior official of the state government.

This is not the first time that the Chief Minister has opted to retain top bureaucrats in advisory positions after their retirement.

On an earlier occasion, Dwivedi’s predecessor Alapan Bandyopadhyay was retained by the Chief Minister as her principal advisor after his retirement as the Chief Secretary.

However, the Opposition has criticised this system of retaining retired bureaucrats with fat emoluments after their retirement.

“These bureaucrats are being paid back for their obedience to the ruling party. This is happening at a time when hundreds of genuine candidates are on the streets staging movements against the state government after being deprived of their legitimate jobs that were being sold in lieu of crores of rupees. The chief minister has to make her stand clear on this matter,” CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said.