In a major administrative reshuffle, the West Bengal government ordered the transfer of 31 IPS and 20 IAS officers across several districts of the state on Tuesday. The order came just before West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee left for a 11-day visit to Dubai and Spain to seek investments for the state. In her absence, state Home Secretary and Personnel and Administrative Reforms secretary BP Gopalika would be looking after administrative matters as Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi would be accompanying the CM on her tour.
Out of the 20 IAS officers, 13 are district magistrates. IAS officer Deepak Priya, Mukta Arya and Preeti Goel have been appointed the new district magistrates of Howrah, Hooghly and Darjeeling districts, respectively.
North 24 Parganas DM Sama Parveen will be transferred to Jalpaiguri, while former Darjeeling District Magistrate Ponnabalam has been transferred to West Burdwan district.
Arun Prasad, the current District Magistrate of West Burdwan district, will take charge as the new district magistrate of Nadia district. Additional District Magistrate of South 24 Parganas Siad NK has been appointed as the new District Magistrate of Bankura district replacing Radhika Iyer.
North Dinajpur District Magistrate Arvind Kumar Meena will be taking charge as the new District Magistrate of Cooch Behar. Meanwhile, the existing District Magistrate of Cooch Behar Pawan Kadian has been appointed a special secretary in the state finance department.
The district magistrates of East Burdwan and Jalpaiguri districts Priyanka Sangla and Moumita Godara Bose will be assuming the roles of Special Secretary of Disaster Management and Civil Defense Department and Secretary of Health Department, respectively.
Nadia District Magistrate Shashank Shetty has been made Special Secretary of Tourism Department.
On the other hand, Bankura District Magistrate Radhika Iyer has been made the Project Director of Kolkata Environmental Development Project.
While among the IPS officers, the Commissioner of Police of Siliguri and Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Jalpaiguri, Murshidabad, Bankura, Barasat, Purulia ranges and headquarters have been transferred.
