WB govt appoints new Home secy, transfers 10 DMs

West Bengal government on Monday appointed Alapan Bandyopadhyay as the new Home Secretary and transferred a number of IAS and IPS officers including 10 district magistrates, an official notification said.

Bandyopadhyay replaces Atri Bhattacharya.

Bhattacharya was transferred by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and chief secretary Moloy De was looking after the Home department.

Bandopadhyay, who was in charge of the MSME department with additional charge of Industry, Commerce and Enterprises will also look after these departments, the notification said.

Ajit Ranjan Bardhan would be the new principal secretary of the North Bengal Development Department (NBDD), the order said. Bardhan was earlier in charge of Youth Services and Sports department.

Barun Kumar Ray, who was in-charge of the NBDD with additional charge of Jalpaiguri Commissioner was transferred as the Commissioner of Malda.

Choten D Lama, Secretary of the Panchayat & Rural Development Department (P&RD) was shifted to the Backward Classes Welfare Department with additional charge of the Tribal department, the order said.

P B Salim, secretary of Minority Affairs department, was given the additional charge of the Youth and Sports department, the order said.

In the IPS reshuffle, the state government shunted Siddhinath Gupta from the post of ADGP (Law and Order) and posted him as ADGP (Establishment).

Gyanwant Singh the Bidhannagar Police Commissioner was appointed the new ADGP (Law and Order).

Jayanta Kumar Basu, ADGP (Establishment) was named as the director of the directorate of economic offences, the order said.

Nishant Pervez, DIG CID (operations) was named the new commissioner of police of Bidhan Nagar, the order said.

The state government also transferred 10 district magistrates.

Dr P Ulaganathan, District Magistrate of Murshidabad will be the new DM of South 24 Parganas in place of Y. Ratnakara Rao, the order said.

Rao will be the new district magistrate of Hooghly in place of JP Meena, who will take charge of DM of Murshidabad, it said.

Chaitali Chakraborty district Magistrate of Howrah will be new district magistrate of North 24 Parganas, the order said.

Mukta Arya, district Magistrate of Bankura was transferred to Howrah, it said adding that Uma Shankar S joint Secretary of the Food and Supplies department will be the new district magistrate of Bankura.

District magistrate of Jalpaiguri Shilpa Gourisaria was transferred as the joint secretary of the Food and Supplies department while Sumit Gupta, District Magistrate of Nadia was made joint Secretary in the health department.

Pawan Kadiyan and Abhishek Tewary were named the new district magistrates of Nadia and Jalpaiguri districts respectively, the order said.

Vijay Bharti will be the new district magistrate of Purba Burdwan district, the order added.