Mamata Banerjee writes to PM Modi over central ministerial teams' visit to WB, calls it breach of protocol

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Banerjee wrote: "While I appreciate the pro-activeness  shown by the Central Government in sending their teams to West Bengal, the same was done without prior intimation and hence is a breach of established protocol."

She also mentioned that while the state government was supposed to provide the teams with their logistics, they directly contacted the central forces like BSF and SSB for the support.

She pointed out that no consultation in this regard was made with the state government.

"It has been mentioned in the referred order that there have been number of violations of lockdown measures and situation is specifically serious in some of the districts. These observations are devoid of any facts and do not lend any credibility to the claim," her letter alleged.

She claimed that the districts selected and the observations made were based on "imagination and is "unfortunate."

"State government is proactively enforcing the lockdown measures as notified by the Government of India and is maintaining a close liaison with concerned central ministries," she wrote in her letter.

"I am sure you agree that such unilateral action on the part of the Central Government is not desirable at all, especially in the backdrop when central and state governments are working together relentlessly round the clock to contain the COVID-19 crisis," she added.

MHA sends Inter-Ministerial Central Teams to COVID-19 hit districts of West Bengal:

The tussle broke after Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) constituted two Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCT) who reached Bengal to undertake spot-assessment of seven COVID-19 hotspot districts of the state and thereby report it to the Centre.

According to reports, these two Central teams will visit West Bengal's Kolkata, Howrah, East Medinipur, North 24 Parganas, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri districts, which have been badly hit by novel coronavirus.

"These two IMCTs, which have been constituted by exercising the powers conferred under Section 35(1), 35(2)(a), 35(2)(e) and 35(2)(i) of the Disaster Management Act 2005, will visit the seven districts of West Bengal, make an on-the-spot assessment of the situation, issue necessary directions to the state authorities for redressal of the situation and submit their reports to the Central government in larger interest of general public," a senior official of the MHA told IBNS.

"These two IMCTs will be led by Department of Defencce's Additional Secretary, Apurva Chandra, and Ministry of Human Resource Development's Additional Secretary, Vineet Joshi," the official said.

Sources in the MHA said that NDMA's Joint Secretary, Ramesh Kumar Ganta, All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health (AIIH & PH)'s professor and Public Health Specialist R.R. Pati, Department of Consumer Affairs' Director, Sitaram Meena, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare's Deputy Secretary, Zile Singh Vical, AIIH & PH's professor Shibani Dutta, NDMA's Advisor (Ops) Ajay Gangwar, Department of Consumer Affairs' Director, Dharmesh Makwana, and MoHFW's Deputy Secretary, N.B. Mani, will be the members of these two IMCTs.

"These IMCTs will mainly focus their assessment on the compliance and implementation of lockdown measures as per guidelines issued under the Disaster Management Act 2005," an MHA official said.

"These Central teams will also focus on other important issues like the supply of essential commodities, social distancing in movement of people outside their homes, preparedness of the health infrastructure, hospital facility and sample statistics in the districts, safety of health professionals, availability of Covid-19 test kits, PPEs, masks and other safety-and-protective equipment, and conditions of the relief camps for labourers and poor people," he added.

Sending a letter to the Chief Secretary of West Bengal, the MHA has asked the state government to provide the teams logistic support, to arrange their accommodation, transportation, PPEs and all cooperation for their visits to local areas.

The state government has also been asked to produce all documents and records as requested by IMCT.

The Centre also observed that situation in these seven hotspot districts of West Bengal were very serious as multiple incidents of violation of lockdown and safety norms have been reported from those areas.

State Vs Centre Clash over COVID-19 data:

The COVID-19 data clash between the West Bengal government led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the central government in New Delhi along with the state's Opposition raged even as the situation worsens in the eastern state amid an outpouring of scary social media accounts of people's experiences.

Opposition leaders continued to slam the West Bengal government as the Covid-19 data provided by the Central Health Ministry and the state health department are still not matching with each other, at a time when the country is in a crucial phase in fight against the pandemic killing countless across the world.

According to Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's Sunday update, the total number of confirmed Covid-19 positive cases in the state has reached 310, which includes 12 deaths and 62 recovery cases, while West Bengal Health and Family Welfare department's Sunday evening bulletin said that there were 198 active Covid-19 positive cases in the state.

The state bulletin also said that 66 people had been cured so far and the number of fatalities caused by novel coronavirus remained at 12 in Bengal.

Questioning the data mismatch, Bengal opposition leaders accused the state government of hiding state's Covid-19 count.