What’s on Suvendu Adhikari govt’s agenda today: Ayushman Bharat, border fencing and bureaucratic overhaul

KOLKATA: Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari and his five cabinet colleagues will have their first meeting around noon on Monday at Nabanna and take up implementation of Ayushman Bharat, a Centre-funded health insurance scheme, in Bengal and plugging of 569km of unfenced border Bengal shares with Bangladesh, among other issues, govt sources said.

The five ministers who were sworn in with Adhikari on Saturday — Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Nisith Pramanik, Ashoke Kirtania and Khudiram Tudu — are likely to get their portfolios on Monday, the sources said. The cabinet expansion is expected later this week.





The CM will also hold his first meeting with the entire Bengal administration at Nabanna Sabhaghar on Monday and spell out the BJP govt’s roadmap for the next five years.

PM Narendra Modi had announced at a pre-poll rally in Bengal that a BJP cabinet in the state would approve the implementation of Ayushman Bharat at its first meeting. The scheme, which the Mamata Banerjee administration had resisted, allows eligible families to receive up to Rs 5 lakh in annual health insurance coverage.

Another issue that the sources said the new govt would accord top priority to is putting up a fence along the 569km border with Bangladesh that remains open. The state shares 2,216.7 km border with Bangladesh.

At 4 pm, Adhikari is likely to meet all IAS officers, including district magistrates. At 5 pm, he is set to meet the police brass. Director-general of police SN Gupta had on Saturday night sent a “most urgent” message to all police unit chiefs asking them to attend the 5 pm meeting, where he said “law and order and related matters” would be discussed.

CAPF cover to continue for CM
Ahead of the cabinet and administrative meetings, the govt took a slew of decisions. An official said on Sunday Adhikari will continue to have CAPF security cover provided by the Centre, though Bengal Police will also be part of the detail. While the CM’s security is the state’s responsibility, the murder of Adhikari’s aide Chandranath Rath may have prompted the govt to entrust CAPF with handling his “proximate security”.

Two IAS officers — P Promoth and Navneet Mittal — were appointed as joint secretaries in the CM’s office on Sunday. Seven WBCS officers —Samrat Chakraborty, Amartya Chakraborty, Ayan Dattagupta, Rajarshi Nath, Surajit Roy, Pramit Das and Deep Bhaduri — were appointed senior deputy secretaries in the CMO. Roy, an official in the land and land reforms department, was the returning officer in Bhowanipore during the assembly polls. Adhikari won from Bhowanipore defeating former CM Mamata Banerjee.

As many as 16 officials who worked in the CMO in the previous govt were transferred on Saturday.

“The past govt never cared for meritorious IAS and IPS officers from the state. That often forced them to leave Bengal,” Adhikari told reporters on Saturday. “But this govt needs these officers to implement policy decisions.”

At least 46 WBCS (executive) officers, who served as private secretaries and officers on special duty to ministers in the Trinamool govt, have been assigned new responsibilities across the state administration.