Teesta fallout: Ties between Mamata, Pranab sever

September 13, 2011 09:11 IST

In an affront to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has refused to relieve an Indian Administrative Service officer he wanted as his private secretary in what appears to be fast soiling relations between the two since differences cropped up over Teesta river deal with Bangladesh.

Mukherjee had sought transfer of the 38-year old Saumitra Mohan, a 2002 batch IAS officer posted in Birbhum district as the collector, to the Centre to fill the vacancy caused by promotion of his present private secretary Manoj Pant, also a West Bengal cadre IAS officer of 1991 batch.

Since his

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son Abhijit was elected to the assembly from Birbhum, Banerjee suspected that the FM wants to reward the collector with a central posting for helping Abhijit in the elections and hence she issued orders transferring Mohan to Darjeeling.

Pant, who has already completed his central tenure and who cannot continue as the minister's private secretary after his promotion, is being sent to the World Bank as the deputy secretary to executive director M N Prasad. Pant takes over the post in December from Pulok Chatterjee returning to Delhi to head the prime minister's office as principal secretary to Dr Manmohan Singh.

A Correspondent in New Delhi

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Indian Administrative Service Banerjee Dr Manmohan Singh West Bengal Saumitra Mohan