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Mamata writes to PM Modi, protests central govt team’s visit to West Bengal
The home ministry on Monday said that it had formed six Inter-Ministerial Central Teams to assess the implementation of lockdown measures as per guidelines
West Bengal chief minister Mamta Banerjee protested against the Centre’s move to send inter-ministerial teams into the state to look into violations of lockdown measures that were announced to curb the spread of the covid-19 pandemic.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a copy of which was seen by Mint, Banerjee said that sending of the inter-ministerial central teams (IMCT) into several districts--Kolkata, Howrah, Medinipur East, 24 Parganas North, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri--amounted to a “unilateral action” by Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah.
“I am sure you will kindly agree that such unilateral action on the part of the central government is not desirable at all, especially in the backdrop when both central and state governments are working together relentlessly round the clock to contain the covid-19 crisis,” Banerjee said in the letter to Modi.
The home ministry on Monday said that it had formed six Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCT) to assess the implementation of lockdown measures as per guidelines, supply of essential commodities, social distancing, preparedness of health infrastructure, safety of health professionals and conditions of the relief camps for labour and poor people. Formation of the six teams was made following complaints regarding these issues.
Of the six teams, two each are for West Bengal and Maharashtra, while one is for Indore in Madhya Pradesh and another for Jaipur in Rajasthan. In Maharashtra, the two teams will visit Mumbai and Pune.
These teams will "make on-spot assessment of situation, issue necessary directions to State Authorities for its redressal and submit their report to the Central Government in larger interest of general public."
Of these six states, West Bengal has the least number of cases at 339, while Maharashtra has the highest in the country at 4,666, of which over 3,000 are in Mumbai alone. Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh also have two of the highest case loads in the country, with 1,478 and 1,485 patients confirmed respectively so far.
However, while there have been low number of cases in West Bengal, there has been criticism about the way the covid-19 crisis has been managed in the state, especially over testing patients and deceased suspected of having the fatal respiratory disease.
Criticism of mismanagement of the crisis has also been made against Madhya Pradesh, especially after senior bureaucrats in the government, including in the state health department were infected.
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First Published:21 Apr 2020, 12:03 AM IST
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