Kolkata, Dec 31 (AHN) West Bengal got its first-ever woman Chief Secretary, with the current additional chief secretary to the state home and hill affairs department, Nandini Chakraborty, being named as the new bureaucratic head of the state on Wednesday by the state government.

Chakraborty succeeded Manoj Pant, who retired on Wednesday. Pant, who was supposed to retire in June this year, was already on an extension for six months.

Although the state government appealed to the Union Government for a further extension of six months for Pant, the proposal was not finally cleared by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the cadres controlling authority of the all-India service cadre officials.

Jagdish Prasad Meena replaces Chakraboryt as the new additional chief secretary to the state home and hill affairs department.

However, despite retiring from his service, Pant has been rehabilitated by the state government. He will now operate as the principal secretary to the Chief Minister, though this post officially is a cadre post that is meant for a regular recruit (not promoted) and serving Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer.

On Tuesday, while interacting with the media persons in Kolkata, Union Home Minister Amit Shah accused the West Bengal government of diluting the rules of the DoPT even while appointing senior bureaucrats and police officers, like the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police. “The DoPT rules are often diluted in West Bengal according to convenience,” HM Shah said.

Nandini Chakraborty is a 1994-batch IAS officer. She has held several important administrative posts in the state. She has also been involved in several controversies.

In the recent past, she was the Principal Secretary to Governor C.V. Ananda Bose. A tense situation arose between Raj Bhavan (currently Lok Bhavan) and the state secretariat over the removal of Nandini Chakraborty from the post of Principal Secretary to the Governor.

Though Raj Bhavan asked the state government to release Chakraborty, the state secretariat had instructed that Nandini should continue as the Principal Secretary to the Governor.

Later, the Chief Minister spoke to the Governor separately in the matter.

After that, the state government decided to remove her from that chair. She was then given the charge of the state tourism department.

Later she was given the charge of the state home and hills affairs department in December 2023.