West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari used a single day, 9 October 2026, to set out two very different priorities: paying municipal workers before Durga Puja, and reopening one of the most painful questions in the state’s recent history, the demolition of the seminar room at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital where a trainee doctor was killed.
On salaries, Adhikari held a virtual meeting on Friday with state administration officials and all municipalities. According to the Bengali news site Banglahunt, he ordered that pending wages be settled by 14 October. The order covers all municipalities and development authorities in the state. Contractual workers’ pending salaries cannot be withheld, and bonuses should be considered, he said. He also told civic bodies to pay at least 30 percent of pending bills for bleaching powder and other materials and to settle completed “Our Area, Our Solution” projects quickly.
The directions went beyond pay. Roads leading to Puja pandals were to be repaired within three days, street lights replaced by 13 October, and special sanitation drives held before the festival. With Mahalaya on 10 October and the main days of the festival approaching, the instructions reflect how seriously the government treats the five-day celebration, which draws very large crowds across Kolkata and the districts.
The second announcement was more politically charged. According to the Bengali portal The Wall, a seminar room and adjacent bathroom at RG Kar, where the trainee doctor was killed, were demolished and renovated shortly after the incident. Adhikari said: “If the then-health secretary gave orders to demolish that space or destroy evidence, and if he remains in position, I will personally investigate. I promise, if the allegations prove true, he will be immediately removed.” The report names the health secretary as Narayan Swarup Nigam. It does not mention any suspension, and nothing in the text shows that any finding has yet been made against him.
The victim’s mother, Ratna Debnath, who is also a legislator, asked: “Who ordered the demolition and renovation of the seminar room and bathroom where my daughter was brutally killed?” Adhikari said the Public Works Department would also be investigated for carrying out the demolition, because it acted on orders from the Health Department. Other outlets reported that the government has also ordered an inquiry into purchases of medical equipment at RG Kar, though IndiaX24 has relied on the primary reports above for the demolition claim.
What matters next is whether an inquiry produces a named decision-maker. The chief minister’s words are conditional, and Nigam has not been quoted in the reports reviewed. The salary order, by contrast, has a clear test: whether workers are paid by 14 October and whether roads and lights are fixed in time for the festival. Adhikari also said during the same week that student union elections in colleges and universities are likely to be held next year, according to LatestLY. IndiaX24 will report on the outcome of the health department inquiry and on whether the pay deadline is met.
Featured image: Suvendu Adhikari at his swearing-in ceremony as Chief Minister of West Bengal on 9 May 2026 (file photo). Photo by Prime Minister’s Office, licensed under Government Open Data License – India, via Wikimedia Commons.