KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee shifted her glare on Monday from the usual suspects like BJP to her own, surprising even her inner circle with a public takedown of some "errant" cabinet colleagues, Trinamool Congress functionaries, and administration officials found wanting in various respects. In her sharpest public criticism to date of ministerial and administrative performance, Mamata set a 10-day deadline for everyone to sha-pe up or ship out. From ministers to bureaucrats, municipalities to the state urban development department, police to district heads, everyone seemed to be in Mamata's firing line as she scanned their report cards.
"It is my turn to speak today and yours to listen," she told the audience of civic body chiefs, ministers, MLAs and senior officials. As many in her range of firing visibly squirmed, Mamata named fire services minister and Bidhannagar MLA Sujit Bose, accusing him of encouraging encroachments in Kolkata's Rajarhat and in front of Salt Lake Sector V's Webel Bhavan. She also accused state food processing minister and Howrah (Central) MLA Arup Roy and Howrah (North) MLA Goutam Chowdhury of extortion.
TOI tried to contact both for comment, but they didn't respond. The CM charged Bally Municipality administrator Amrita Roy Burman with dereliction of duty. "Have you seen Hatibagan's state? I made the city so beautiful.
But now, a new OC (of a police station) comes and immediately brings in new illegal settlers. The situation is.
