Bengal Governor gets new secretary, a day after change of power
Kolkata: The first transfer at the bureaucratic level took place as soon as the West Bengal Assembly polls results were declared, with Governor R.N. Ravi getting a new secretary.
State Transport Secretary Soumitra Mohan, 2002-batch IAS officer, has been made the Governor’s Secretary, said officials on Tuesday.
He has been serving as the Transport Secretary for more than three years. Although various changes were made at the administrative level in the state during the voting phase, he was not removed from the Transport Department.
Soumitra Mohan was made the Governor’s Secretary as soon as the voting was over on Monday.
Ravi took oath as the new Governor of West Bengal at the Lok Bhavan in Kolkata on March 12. It is learnt that the Governor had requested the government to appoint a secretary within a week of taking charge. However, the move could not be completed as, after taking charge, the election notification was issued.
Earlier, when C.V. Anand Bose was the Governor of West Bengal, IAS Nandini Chakraborty was his Secretary. However, within a few days of that appointment, Nandini was removed from that post. It is known that after moving to Lok Bhavan, she was labelled as a ‘man of the ruling party’ of the time. According to Lok Bhavan sources, it was because of that label that Nandini was removed from the post of Secretary to the Governor. Later, however, Nandini was made the Home Secretary of the state and finally the Chief Secretary.
In February 2023, the then-Governor Anand Bose removed Nandini from the post of Principal Secretary. Since then, no IAS officer has been appointed to this post. This time, after almost three years, a bureaucrat has again been appointed as the Governor’s Secretary.
Earlier in the day, Governor R.N. Ravi, along with his wife, Laxmi Ravi, offered prayers to Maa Kali at the Kalighat Kali Temple. They prayed for the well-being of the people and the progress and prosperity of West Bengal.
On Monday, state politics witnessed a massive change with the BJP coming to power, bringing down the Trinamool Congress government.