Alapan Bandyopadhyay (born 17 May 1961) is an ex-

Indian Administrative Service The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the Public administration, administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. The IAS is one of the three All India Services along with the Indian Police Service (IPS) and the Indian ...

(IAS) officer and former Chief Secretary of State for the

Government of West Bengal The Government of West Bengal, also known as the West Bengal Government, is the Administrative division, principal administrative authority of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal, created by the Constitution ...

. He is the Chief Advisor for

Chief Minister of West Bengal The chief minister of West Bengal (IAST: Paścim Baṅgēr Mukhya Mantrī) is the '' de facto'' head of the executive branch of the Government of West Bengal, the subnational authority of the Indian state of West Bengal. The chief minister is ...

Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee (; born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current List of chief ministers of West Bengal, chief minister of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal since 2 ...

, since 1 June 2021. He took over from IAS officer Rajiv Sinha, in the year 2020, starting his tenure as Chief Secretary of

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

Career

Alapan was an officer of IAS batch-1987 from West Bengal. He was earlier a district magistrate of

Howrah Howrah (; ; alternatively spelled as Haora) is a city in the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. Howrah is located on the western bank of the Hooghly River, opposite to its twin city of Kolkata. Administratively ...

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

South 24 Parganas South 24 Parganas (Pron: pɔrɡɔnɔs; abbr. 24 PGS (S)), or sometimes South Twenty Four Parganas and Dakshin 24 Parganas, is a district in the Indian state of West Bengal, headquartered in Alipore previously, with its Zilla Parishad now in Ba ...

districts. He had also served as Chief Executive Officer, Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority and Kolkata Municipal Commissioner. He has also headed several departments —

transport Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), commerce and industry, information and culture, and

home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. Homes provide sheltered spaces, for instance rooms, where domestic activity can be p ...

— as principal secretary. The IAS officer also served as interim state election commissioner in 2015. He has penned several books including ''Amlar Mon'' in 2016 and edited several other books from ''Prosongo Gorkhaland'' (1987) to ''Philosopher's Stone: Speeches and Writings of Sir Daniel Hamilton'' (2000). He retired from IAS on 31 May 2021 and was appointed as Chief Advisor of Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1 June 2021 for 3 years. A student of Ramakrishna Mission Narendrapur (3rd rank holder in Secondary Examination, 1976, and a National Talent Search Scholar, 1978) and a student of Presidency College and Calcutta University (gold medalist in M.A. Political Science in 1983) he was a journalist with Anandabazar Patrika (ABP Group) before joining the IAS.

Personal life

Bandyopadhyay was born in 1961 in

Asansol Asansol is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the second largest city in West Bengal. It is the 33rd largest urban agglomeration in India by population. Asansol is the district headquarters of Paschim Bardhaman district. Accordi ...

. He is married to the former

Vice Chancellor A vice-chancellor (commonly called a VC) serves as the chief executive of a university in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, other Commonwealth countr ...

of the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...

and academic Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee. His son Milinda Banerjee is lecturer of Modern History in

University of St. Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, following the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, t ...

, Scotland. His younger brother,

Anjan Bandyopadhyay Anjan Bandyopadhyay or Anjan Banerjee (24 August 1965 – 16 May 2021) was an Indian Bengali journalist who worked for various news and media channels such as ''Anandabazar Patrika'', ''ETV Bangla'', ''Akash Bangla'', ''Zee 24 Ghanta'', ''TV9 Ba ...

who was a well-known journalist working in several Bengali media news channels, died on 16 May 2021 due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

and its complications.

References

1967 births Living people Indian civil servants {{WestBengal-politician-stub