Amitabha Sengupta
AGARTALA, April 23 (TIWN) : Former Tripura Chief Secretary cum retd. Union Textile Secretary S K Panda is almost certain to return to the state and this time with a bigger task of handling the post of Chief Minister's Political and Administrative Advisor, obviously because of' honest and Mr Clean' Chief Minister Manik Sarkar's penchant for tainted officials like GSG Iyengar . This has already given serious amount of anxiety and fear among the most of top level honest officials working in the state. A highly placed source in State CPI-M HQ Melarmath informed TIWN that even such decision has aroused considerable amount of doubts among the CPI-M leadership considering the irregularities in which S K Panda was involved during his tenure in Tripura right from Director of Higher Education to the Chief Secretary of Tripura. Melarmath lobby can't do anything against the interests of Manik Sarkar because of his influence in PolitBureau as well as in party's central and state committee.
But a majority of party leaders are afraid that if Panda is appointed as CM's Political and Administrative Advisor then he will definitely take control over the entire administration like he did during his tenure as Chief Secretary which saw massive irregularities and scams.
The bulk of honest officials in the state including those of the IAS, TCS are afraid that once again the state is going to be submerged with deep rooted corruption if Panda assumes charge.
Senior officials realizing why CM Manik is so keen to bring back Panda in the state.
It is to be noted that S K Panda retired from his post of Union Textile Secretary on 31st December 2015. Before joining the Gov't of India service S K Panda was involved in serous irregularities and corruptions and few mentioned below :
1) As the Director of Higher Education S K Panda appointed a group of youths from Orissa( Panda's home soil ) in the post of Lecturers in different colleges depriving the qualified youths of Tripura ( a majority of those Orissans left the state taking jobs in their own state )
2) It was during his tenure as Chief Secretary several scams like the multi-crore RMSA scam , MGNREGA scam in Bishalgarh and almost all other blocks in the state occured. Not only that Rs 51 crore MGNREGA scamster BDO Bimal Chakraborty translated Panda's book '1+1=11' into Bengali.
3) It was he who played a pivotal role to misguide the state gov't ( as alleged by a section of high officials in the State Secretariat) to recruit 10323 teachers violating the Centre's guidelines. After High Court's verdict of cancelling all 10323 jobs, now the fate of those 10323 teachers are hanging for upcoming verdict of Supreme Court
4) Many top level officials still believe that Panda was behind the Tripura School Education Directorate's order to procure the two private books wiht Govt funds - one Chief Minister Manik Sarkar's " Atit Diner Smriti Katha " and the other one of S K Panda's " Eker Sathe Ek Melay Egaro "- from the funds allocated to different school under SSA, RMSA funds.
5) It is alleged that under SK Panda's advice, an upright official Director of Finance & Audit L. Rakhum was transferred from his post to the Director of SIPARD
Even after being aware of Panda's irregularities , CM's mysterious intention to bring him back at the helm of administration has aroused doubts and tension in the state administration as well as among CPI-M State leadership.
A top level source in the Melarmath told this correspondent that perhaps Manik Sarkar realized that Panda can take control over the administration and even compel the officials for party cash generation as directed by him ( to be frank by CM himself ) .
Again , the state CPI-M source also revealed that Manik Sarkar may have visualized that during 2018 he will face probably the biggest challenge with the rise of BJP, TMC as a formidable opposition especially when Congress is becoming weaker and weaker day by day .
Thus , already deep rooted under corruption especially regarding the utilization of centrally sponsored funds , Tripura is heading towards another journey of massive corruption under the honest (?) CM Manik simply because of his too much dependence and leniency towards S K Panda , who has earned a name across the state as a patroniser of corruption .
Its surpising that S.K.Panda holds so much of influence over Manik Sarkar that CM creating a whole new post 'Chief Minister's Political and Administrative Advisor" toaccomodate Panda.
Whether this leniency is because of Manik Sarkar's hunger for power, penchant for secret deals or because of his inabilities to control over corruption at every level ? CM will have to answer in coming days.