The West Bengal government on Wednesday replaced the Commissioner of Bidhannagar City Police for the fourth time in four days, reports said. The development raises doubts about the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led administration’s functioning. Banerjee holds the home ministry portfolio.

The Bidhannagar satellite city is popularly known as Salt Lake.

The latest government order said that Laxmi Narayan Meena will replace Bharat Lal Meena. On Sunday, May 26, the West Bengal administration had assigned Gyanwant Singh the post of Bidhannagar Commissioner of Police after he was replaced by N Ramesh Babu during the elections. On Monday, the state ordered Nishat Parvez, who was the deputy inspector general (operations) in the Criminal Investigation Department, to replace Singh as the Bidhannagar commissioner of police.

On Tuesday, however, the state asked Parvez to continue in his old role and cancelled his appointment. Bharat Lal Meena was given charge of the Bidhannagar commissioner of police post for a day before he was reinstated as the as the Siliguri police commissioner.

On May 26, the West Bengal government had reinstated former Kolkata Commissioner of Police Rajeev Kumar and 10 other Indian Police Service officers transferred by the Election Commission during the Lok Sabha elections.

Bidhannagar has a Trinamool Congress-dominated municipal corporation that will go to polls in 2020.

‘Defying logic’


BJP Bengal unit vice president Jay Prakash Majumdar said the changes showcase the state government’s panic, Hindustan Times reported. “She [Mamata Banerjee] cannot trust anyone in the police department,” Majumdar said. “Therefore, a decision is taken in the morning and is changed in the evening.”

Congress lawmaker Abdul Mannan said defeat is inevitable for the ruling party. “Psychologists say that when one stares at inevitable defeat, people get unnerved and do things that defy logic,” Mannan said. “This syndrome is inevitable in the chief minister. In fact, she may change her decision tomorrow again.”