Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has directed H K Dwivedi, former chief secretary and now an advisor to her to initiate an inquiry to probe alleged distribution of government lands in the Rajarhat-New Town area, under HIDCO (Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation) during the regime of Debashis Sen as chairman of the corporation.
Miss Banerjee’s directive to conduct the inquiry involving Mr Sen, a former bureaucrat who was once reportedly a favoured officer to her, has raised eyebrows among senior IAS officers in the state.
While holding an administrative review meeting with chief secretary B P Gopalika, secretaries of different departments, from home, finance, health etc, IPS officers, including director general of police (DGP) and districts magistrates at the state secretariat Nabanna on Tuesday she raised the issue of government lands in Rajarhat-New Town areas.
Miss Banerjee directed Mr Dwivedi, who has been rehabilitated also as vice-chairman of the HIDCO after his retirement, to probe how many agencies have been given lands in the Rajarhat-New Town areas when Mr Sen was the CMD of HIDCO.
“The chief minister has asked Mr Dwivedi to make on-the-spot visits to Rajarhat-New Town areas to inspect the condition of government lands given to private entrepreneurs instead of sitting at the CMO at Nabanna,” sources in the state secretariat said.
She also asked Mr Dwivedi to look into the status of lands leased out to private companies and whether all legal processes were followed when the lands were handed over to them.
Recently, serious allegations of nepotism were brought against Mr Sen, who reportedly, violating rules and regulations of the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) had approved his relative to use a big plot of government land in the NKDA area for Durga Puja celebration.
Besides the alleged irregularities in connection with leasing out of government lands to private companies, there are other allegations like handing over most of the government housing projects in the New Town area to private developers during his long stint as a HIDCO chairman.
Sources in the HIDCO also alleged that no fresh engineers and officers in senior posts were recruited during his tenure. Several retired engineers and officers of HIDCO were rehabilitated every year on contractual basis in the organization when he was the chairman.
Some senior bureaucrats said Mr Sen was given extension as HIDCO chairman for about four times after his retirement as he was very close to the chief minister.
Mr Sen was not available for comment. He did not respond to WhatsApp messages sent to him by this correspondent and did not take calls made to him.