In a curious development that drew immediate criticism from the Opposition parties the Mamata Banerjee Government has reinstated “tainted” IAS officer Godala Kiran Kumar as the Joint Secretary of the Statistics Department.
Kiran Kumar a former District Magistrate of Malda and the Chairman of Siliguri-Jalpaiguri Development Authority was arrested in November 2013 by the then Siliguri Commissioner of Police J Jayaraman for his alleged involvement in the SJDA scam worth more than `120 crore.
Soon after his arrest Kumar a 2005 batch officer was sent on compulsory waiting for six months. After he got bail he was brought to the Agriculture Department.
He was arrested after it was found that bill worth crores of rupees had been cleared in projects that had either not been completed or had taken off only on paper.
“Kumar’s reinstatement is proof enough of what direction the Chief Minister is intending to walk. There was a talk that she would try to improve the image of her Government after coming back to power but the way the honest officers are being shunted to punishment postings and the way tainted ones are given priced postings the message has already been sent to the corrupt ones,” said CPI(M) MlA Sujan Chakrabarty.
Soon after coming back to power with thumping majority the Chief Minister reinstated or promoted at least 35 IPS and IAS officers shunted out by the Election Commission of India for their deficient and biased performance during the elections.
Among the reinstated officers were Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, Midnapore SP Bharati Ghosh, DIG Tanmoy Roychowdhury and those who were shunted out from their posts were Bidhannagar Commissioner of Police Javed Shamim and former Kolkata Police Commissioner Somen Mitra who was sent as ADG Training.
Incidentally Jayaraman who had arrested Kiran Kumar has also been shunted to the post of DIG Training.