I don't want master extortionists, Mamata tells TMC netas, bureaucrats

Kolkata: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjeeon surprised even her inner circle with a public takedown of some “errant” cabinet colleagues, TMC functionaries, and bureaucrats found wanting in various respects.
In her sharpest public criticism to date of ministerial and administrative performance, Mamata set a 10-day deadline for everyone to shape up or ship out. From ministers to bureaucrats, municipalities to the state urban development department, police to district heads, everyone seemed to be in her firing line. “It is my turn to speak today and yours to listen,” she told the audience of civic body chiefs, ministers, MLAs and senior officials.
As many in her range of firing visibly squirmed, Mamata named fire services minister and Bidhannagar MLA Sujit Bose, accusing him of encouraging encroachments in Kolkata’s Rajarhat and in front of Salt Lake Sector V’s Webel Bhavan. She also accused state food processing minister and Howrah (Central) MLA Arup Roy and Howrah (North) MLA Goutam Chowdhury of extortion.
 
“How much money do you need to lead a good life? You are going around in big cars, dining at fancy restaurants. Everything is fine, but first think of the people,” she said.
Her 70-minute tirade at the state secretariat came 20 days after the LS verdict. To TMC functionaries, she said those indulging in extortion or doing shoddy work would be thrown out of the party. “I don’t want ‘master’ extortionists. I want people’s servants,” she said, as the municipal corporations of Howrah, Bidhannagar, and Siliguri copped the bulk of criticism.
She announced a key change in the tender process. Civic bodies are no longer authorised to give out contracts. Instead, a panel comprising the chief secretary and secretaries of home, finance, land and irrigation departments, and police commissioners and an ADGP-level officer will oversee the process. “Why should the govt’s image be tarnished because of the misdeeds of a few?” she said.