A peeved Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi questioning the appropriateness of unleashing a Central team on the State for inspecting the alleged “violation” and “dilution” of lock-down guidelines without keeping the Bengal Government in the loop.
The letter was written within an hour of the Chief Minister asking the Prime Minister and Home Minister Amit Shah on the twitter to explain the Centre’s alleged arbitrary conduct defying all the federal norms.
In the letter Banerjee has drawn attention of the Prime Minister to how the Inter Ministerial Central Team landed in Kolkata within minutes of her Government being informed about its coming to the State, sources said, adding how the Chief Minister has reminded the Prime Minister that the central move is against all established traditions.
Banerjee is also known to have told Modi how Shah spoke to her at 1 PM about the Centre’s decision to send the designated team which had already arrived in Kolkata by then. Hours before writing the letter Banerjee exploded on twitter questioning the lack of clarity over the IMCTs’ (Inter Ministerial Central Teams) visit to various districts of the country.
She wrote: “We welcome all constructive support and suggestions, especially from the Central Government” in handling the corona crisis. “However, the basis on which centre is proposing to deploy IMCTs in select districts across India, including a few in West Bengal is unclear.”
Asserting that her government will not be able to cooperate with the Centre on the given issue if things are not explained in the manner it should be she urged “both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to share the criterion used for this. Until then, I am afraid, we would not be able to move ahead on this as without valid reasons this might not be consistent with the spirit of federalism.”
Two IMCT teams arrived in Bengal on Monday. While the first team would visit Kolkata, Howrah, East Midnapore and North 24 Parganas the second team that had landed at Baghdogra in Siliguri will visit Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts. The teams will assess the situation on the ground, issue necessary directions for remedy and submit a report to the central government, officials said. They will also take stock of the supply of essential commodities, health infrastructure preparedness, hospital facilities and sample statistics, safety of health professionals and test kits. The Mamata Banerjee government’s expression of protest assumed unprecedented scales with the State’s senior most bureaucrat Rajiva Sinha making adverse statements against the central action wondering why Delhi was behaving in a manner “as if we are hiding something.”
The Chief Secretary who summoned the central team hours after it arrived in Kolkata to meet him at the Nabanna (State secretariat) even went to the extent of saying that the government will “not allow them to move about like this if we are not convinced by their purpose of the visit.”
Questioning the manner in which the IMCTs have come to state, Sinha said, “We were told, not asked, about the visit of the Central teams. Two teams landed within 15 minutes of us being informed about their visits. One team landed in Jalpaiguri, another in Kolkata… They are behaving as if we are hiding something.
He said the “the State government is supposed to provide the logistics and other supports to enable the central team to visit the areas but here they are being escorted by the SSB and the BSF. We have said come and talk to us then decide if you need to go into the field… We will not let them roam around in the state.
The Monday’s development takes shape against the backdrop of continuous war of words between the State Government one side and Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and State BJP leadership --- which had been complaining of dilution of lockdown norms and corruption in distribution of essentials --- on the other.
BJP State president Dilip Ghosh however welcomed the IMCTs’ visit to Bengal saying he had information how “the lockdown norms are being violated in select areas (read minority belts)” and how “the essential food grains are being stolen by the TMC leaders at the ground level.”
He said “the local panchayat at Kalaikunda complained me today how unknown truckers came from nowhere and carried away rice that was ferried in by goods wagons at the local railway yard.” He also alleged that the trucks carrying food materials were being half unloaded at the TMC party offices and misappropriated by their local leaders.
Meanwhile, in what continued to paint a grim picture of Bengal the State on Monday recorded a steep hike in the number of corona cases which went up by 54 in the past one day taking the total number of total cases to 245.
State Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha said that the State had witnessed 54 new cases in the past one day adding the total number of deaths reported were 12 till date. He also said that 5,469 people have been kept in government quarantine whereas about 34,964 people have been kept in home isolation. Among the infected persons are four doctors and two other officials of Calcutta Medical College Hospital. The Monday’s infection takes thetotal number of doctors getting infected in the CMCH to 7 in two days, sources said.