Korbo, Lorbo…Mamata asks Bengal IAS to perform; to meet IPS officers today

Mamata Banerjee (File Photo)

ON A day West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee acted as a cheerleader and lifted the KKR’s IPL trophy in a victory rally in Kolkata, she also addressed about 250 IAS officers of the state urging them to pull up their socks. Like most other states, West Bengal too has a shortage of about 50 IAS officers where the sanctioned posts stand at 330. Ms Banerjee is likely to talk to state’s IPS officers today. Did she talk about Korbo, Lorbo...?

Interestingly, it was not a formal meeting but an official dinner at Town Hall where both fish and chicken curries were served. Being a Tuesday, a number of officers however opted for plain vegetarian dishes.

Many IAS officers are demoralized in the state because they were not allowed to go on Central deputation thanks to the shortage of administrators in the state. This reverberates a similar policy for rail babus, which was adopted when Ms Banerjee was the railway minister. Many bureaucrats in Indian Railways were not given extension of deputation tenure, and many were discouraged to go on deputation as deputy secretary or joint secretary to other ministries.

According to a Times of India report, the chief minister was not happy with many IAS officers. But she preferred to single out two departments, fisheries and animal resources, for their non-performance. Even additional DMs and DMs came from various districts to listen to the chief minister. The chief minister also urged the officers to ensure that not even a single paisa is returned to the Centre for non-utilization.

Will the IPS officers get a similar dose today?

Many say the chief minister actually turned unusually happy and satisfied after she had attended the huge victory rally of Kolkata Knight Riders’ IPL title. Yesterday, the City of Joy reverberated the same words: Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo. And probably, the CM wanted IAS, IPS to adopt the same slogan.

Action and Appointments

a) The ACC has approved the proposal of extension of Central deputation tenure of G Srinivas, a 1990 batch Orissa cadre IAS and joint secretary in the ministry of mines, for a period of three months beyond May 19, 2012.

b) The Central deputation tenure of Vineet Chawdhry, a 1982 batch Himachal Pradesh cadre IAS and Deputy Director (Administration) in AIIMS, has been extended for a period of six months beyond May 29, 2012.