NEW DELHI, June 3: The former West Bengal chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay who was at the centre of the Delhi-Kolkata spat over skipping prime minister Narendra Modi’s cyclone Yaas review meeting, has reportedly refuted the centre’s charge that he “boycotted” the prime minister’s meeting.
Keeping the three days deadline for replying to the centre’s notice, Bandyopadhyay, official sources said, wrote to the centre on Thursday that he did not “abstain” from Modi’s Cyclone Yaas meeting and that he was there “till the Chief Minister was there.”
He has said “as per the directive of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee,” he left the meeting for a review of the damage caused by Cyclone Yaas in Digha town, according to sources.
For allegedly missing PM Modi’s meet along with Mamata Banerjee last Friday, Bandyopadhyay was transferred to the Centre just a day before his retirement on May 31. Mamata Banerjee refused to release him and Bandyopadhyay chose to “retire” instead of accepting three months extension in service granted to him four days earlier and refused to report to Delhi after which he was appointed Chief Adviser to the Chief Minister.
Earlier this week, the Centre sent him a show-cause notice asking him to explain his absence from Modi’s meeting.
Mamata Banerjee and her team had left after a brief interaction with the Prime Minister at the air base where he had landed after an aerial review. The Chief Minister’s refusal to stay and attend the meeting was partly linked to the presence of her former aide-turned-BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari at the meeting as Leader of Opposition.
The show cause notice to Bandyopadhyay accused him of making Modi and other members of his entourage wait for nearly 15 minutes.
(Manas Dasgupta)