The West Bengal finance department issued a memorandum on Thursday, asking all departments to frame policies only with the go-ahead of the state cabinet or the chief minister. It was also clearly mentioned in the memorandum that certain decisions were taken recently that did not clear the policy decisions with this kind of consent. This is the first such memorandum of its kind that has been issued since Mamata Banerjee took over as chief minister.
It is learnt that some decisions not getting cleared by either the CM or the state cabinet, was mentioned by the chief minister to some ministers and officers at the state administrative headquarters, Nabanna, on Thursday itself.
Some recent decisions – such as imposing restrictions on use of water bodies for Chhat Puja, procurement procedures in agriculture among other decisions – had been taken by some departments and the CM had come to know about these only later. Regarding Chhat puja, she had to take some other measures so that those who observe the festival do not face inconveniences, officials said.
Following this, the decision was taken to clearly inform all departments that they must get the consent for all policy decisions cleared centrally from the cabinet and/or the CM.
