Kolkata, Mar 6 (IANS): Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari has informed that the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has acknowledged the receipt and documentation of his complaint against Chief Secretary H.K. Dwivedi regarding the "debatable" receipt of house rent allowance (HRA) by the latter.

He also shared the CVC's acknowledgement email on his Twitter handle. "Sir/Madam, your complaint 7916/2023 has been duly examined by the Commission in terms of Complaints Handling Policy and having regards to the nature of the issues therein, the same has been filed. Central Vigilance Commission," the acknowledgement letter reads.

According to a retired Indian Administrative Officer (IAS) officer, who did not wish to be named, said that it is a normal procedure for the CVC to acknowledge the sender a communication regarding the receipt and documentation of a formal complaint.

"Acknowledgment of the receipt and documentation of the complaint to the sender does not mean that CVC has agreed on the merits of the complaint, which is subject to investigation. As I can see right here, there are now two options for CVC. Either it can recommend the state government to start a departmental probe in the matter or the commission can directly start its own investigation in the matter," the retired bureaucrat added.

The complaint against the chief secretary by Adhikari was that despite being provided with an eight-room government bungalow as his accommodation since he took over in that chair in September 2020, Dwivedi had withdrawn HRA in a parallel manner and had drawn a total of Rs 16.40 lakh on this count.

The chief secretary was not available for his comments, though the state government sources confirmed that he has stopped drawing HRA for quite some time.