Arrested Trinamool minister to retain his portfolio for the time being

Kolkata: West Bengal Forest Minister JyotiPriya Mallick, who is presently in Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody because of his alleged involvement in the multi-crore ration distribution case, seems to have retained his ministerial portfolio for the time being.

A decision in this regard was supposed to be taken at a crucial meeting of the state Cabinet on Wednesday.

However, the meeting that lasted for 25 minutes did not talk about finding a replacement for Mallick.

It was decided that for the time being, Minister of State for Forest, Birbaha Hansda, will oversee the affairs of the forest department in Mallick's absence.

A member of the state Cabinet said after the brief meeting that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has expressed her solidarity towards the arrested minister, stating that he became a victim of political conspiracy.

The fate of Mallick is a study in contrast to what happened to former Education Minister and senior Trinamool leader Partha Chatterjee after he was arrested by the ED in July last year in connection with the multi-crore cash for school jobs.

Within a week of his arrest, Chatterjee was stripped of all his ministerial and party portfolios, the announcement for which was made at a press conference by the Trinamool's national General Secretary, Abhishek Banerjee.

The party even removed the post of Secretary General which was held by Chatterjee that gave him a status of something equivalent to the post of national General Secretary.