Mamata removes key TMC minister from industry department in 'perform or perish' message
Kolkata: In a stern perform or perish message, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday stripped Partha Chatterjee of his Commerce and Industry portfolio in a Cabinet reshuffle, giving the key department to Finance Minister Amit Mitra to give a boost to industrialisation in the state.
Though Chatterjee was ostensibly removed from the post to 'lessen his burden', the shake-up involving 12 ministers came on the heels of a meeting chaired by Banerjee last week when she pulled up several ministers for non-performance and failure to utilise funds.
The removal of Chatterjee, TMC General Secretary and considered second in rank in the Cabinet, followed muted criticism of his failure to deliver.
"Partha Chatterjee was retaining many portfolios and he has also to look after the party as he is the general secretary. He was under tremendous pressure. So in order to lessen his burden it has been decided that Amit Mitra, who is also the Finance Minister, will look after the Industry and Commerce Department," the Chief Minister said.
She said Chatterjee would retain IT, electronics and parliamentary affairs departments and will also assist the her in her departments. Chatterjee, a trusted lieutenant of the Banerjee, has played an important role in shaping up TMC's policies.
In a bid to speed up development work ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Banerjee reallotted portfolios and inducted two new faces in the reshuffle of the 31-month-old ministry, which also saw a minister of state getting independent charge. The new faces are Shashi Panja, daughter-in-law of former party leader and Union minister Ajit Panja, and Binay Burman.
Panja is MLA from Shyampukur in north Kolkata, while Burman represensts Mathabhanga Assembly seat in Cooch Behar district. Burman replaced Hiten Burman as the Forest Minister, who had resigned citing health grounds.
Swapan Debnath, Minister of State for Micro and Small-scale Enterprises and Textiles, was given independent charge. Debnath is the party legislator from Burdwan district. With today's reshuffle, the strength of the ministers, including the Chief Minister, has gone up to 44.
Governor M.K. Narayanan administered the oath of office and secrecy to the two new ministers in Raj Bhavan in the presence of the Chief Minister and members of her Cabinet.
Partha Chaterjee's fall from grace started in May when Mamata Banerjee took away the chairmanship of the industry core committee from him. The Chief Minister subsequently held a meeting with city industrialists before unveiling in August the state's long-pending industrial policy aimed at addressing some of the industry's concerns.
Though the government's guidelines were more or less retained in the new industrial policy, she nonetheless made some relaxations, though making it clear that there were limitations in providing large pieces of land to the manufacturing sector.
The relaxation was made largely in the land ceiling laws. Banerjee intended to send a strong signal by reshuffling responsibilities among several other ministers. Sudharshan Ghoshdastdar, who held the dual portfolio of PWD and Environment, lost his PWD portfolio to Sankar Chakraborty, a party stalwart in South Dinajpur district.
The Co-operation portfolio, held by Chakraborty, went to Rachpal Singh whose Planning Department was given to Noor-e-Alam Chowdhury. Chowdhury, however, had to lose his Animal Husbandry Department to Swapan Debnath, who also got the independent charge of Small and Medium Enterprises.
Becharam Manna, one of the faces of the Singur agitation in Hoogly district and Minister of State for Agriculture Marketing, was given the additional charge of Minister of State for Land. Sabitri Mitra, the party leader in Malda district whose performance also came in for sharp criticism by the Chief Minister in review meetings earlier, lost her Women Welfare Department to Sashi Panja.
The only minister from Bankura district Shayamapada Mukherjee was made the incharge of the newly-formed Textile Department, but he too had to give up his Child Welfare Department in favour of Panja.
