Chief minister Mamata Banerjee today pulled up superintendent of police( SP), Midnapore, in connection with his “lax” action in dealing with perpetrators fomenting trouble in the district and asked him not to hear others while executing his duty except the state government.

In a stern message to the IPS and IAS officers of the state at an administrative meeting at the Netaji Indoor Stadium today, Ms Banerjee while asking the IAS officers to shun the practice of shifting responsibility on the junior officers and unnecessarily burdening them while doing their duties, IPS officers too came in for flak. She singled out the SP, Midnapore for “dereliction of duty” and called for his “trustworthiness”, which she asserted was in question, since nothing worthwhile had been done by him while dealing with trouble-mongers in the area.

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Repeated calls to initiate action failed to bring out desired results and she had to intervene to get those persons involved in fomenting trouble arrested, Miss Banerjee said.

In an apparent reproof at the officer, the chief minister, while looking for answers from the Midnapore police chief said,”Where is the SP? Is he hiding? Receiving complaints from your district. I’ve information trickling in for quite some time that some provocateurs were trying to foment trouble in a planned manner in the district but nothing worthwhile had been done by you in this respect despite repeated calls for actions. I had to intervene to get those arrested. Instigation come from some political leaders to trigger violence.

Are you feeling jittery to act? Does the Governor call you over the phone? And ask you what to do or not? You won’t tell me that but bear in mind that you are doing duty for the state government. Are you under any political pressure? Then tell me clearly. Don’t give ears to anybody while doing duties. You had been posted there because I have trust on you that you will do a good job.”

She also said that the issue came to such a pass that she had to intervene to get two persons arrested in connection with creating trouble for the business houses of Exide and Dhaunka Industries there. The chief minister’s dressing-down of an IPS officer assumed significance since Midnapore is the district the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Suvendu Adhikari hails from.

This, however, invited sharp reaction from the Opposition. While the state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar snapped at the chief minister, saying that today’s action vindicated that the chief minister herself was involved in snooping on the Governor and the IPS officers, the CPI-M Leader Samik Lahiri said, “ She is conducting a media trial. If she has anything to say to the officer concerned she could have done this separately. But she had done this only to force the IPS and IAS officers to act in a partisan manner in the coming elections”.