West Bengal: Mamata Banerjee in office on weekend too

Trinamool chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

She is a workaholic. That was the common reaction in the Writers' Buildings on Saturday.

Mamata Banerjee, the new chief minister of West Bengal, left her office early Saturday morning at 12.25 am, and was back in the secretariat at 11.50 am.

Within hours of taking over as the first woman chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata on Friday afternoon walked from the Raj Bhavan to the Writers' Buildings to take over the reigns of the state.

For the next few hours, she presided over the first cabinet meeting and addressed the media.

Then, the CM held a detailed meeting with finance minister Amit Mitra on the financial health of the state, and finalised the portfolios of the new ministers.

After the portfolios were announced at 12.15 am on Saturday morning, she left her office at 12.25 am. But she took everyone by surprise by returning to the office at 11:50 am.

The new CM had directed all the ministers and senior officials of all the departments to attend office on Saturday, which otherwise is a holiday.

"I am back in office because I wanted to understand the intricacies of the state administration," she said. However, for Mitra the day started on a rather inauspicious note.

The new finance minister was admitted to a private hospital in Kolkata around 1.30 am after he complained of acute abdominal pain.

The doctors have advised him a week's rest.

Mamata started her day with meeting higher education minister Bratya Basu and technical education minister Rabiranjan Chatterjee.

The CM told them that education is one of the sectors that need immediate attention of the government.

She also met ministers and senior bureaucrats of the departments of health, land reforms, power and agriculture.

She went around the Writers' Buildings on Saturday and spoke to the employees, assuring them all support.

Later, she announced that she would have a meeting with the senior police officers on Monday.

The CM would also meet all the superintendents of police and district magistrates of the state on Tuesday.

Though Mamata, just like her Tamil Nadu counterpart J.

Jayalalithaa, announced fulfilment of key electoral promises just after taking over the reigns of the state, she surprised her supporters by inducting a mammoth cabinet.

After the landslide victory in the assembly elections, the Trinamool Congress chief had claimed that the size of the ministry would be kept small to minimise the financial burden on the state exchequer, which is now reeling under acute financial burden.

However, 33 cabinet ministers and four ministers of state were sworn in on Friday along with her.

Five more ministers of state from the Congress, and one from the Trinamool Congress are likely to be picked up soon.

With the expansion of the council of ministers, the Trinamool Congress-led government will have 43 ministers (excluding the CM).

The Left Front government under Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had 42 ministers, including 32 cabinet ministers.

As per the Supreme Court's directive on the maximum size of governments, there can be 44 ministers in West Bengal, which is 15 per cent of the total 294 seats. Interestingly, Mamata has exhausted the quota.

THE West Bengal CM said "practically no work had been done by the previous Left Front rule in West Bengal", while taking stock of the situation in the state by consulting various departments, which she kept to herself in the new government.

"I called all the departments, particularly those of health, land and land reforms, power, agriculture and education," she said.

Stressing on the need for good governance, she said: "Political affiliations are a major stumbling block. It delays implementation of government orders. Mere issue of orders is not going to get results. Implementation of them is more important."