The Centre and the Mamata Banerjee dispensation’s locking of horns continued on Wednesday this time over the issues of non-movement of essential goods through the India-Bangladesh border as it entail international ramifications and the under-reporting of Covid-19 related deaths from the State besides violation of lockdown guidelines there.
Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla wrote two letters to the State Chief Secretary Rajiv Sinha. In the letter sent in the morning, the MHA blamed the State Government for blocking international cargos to Bangladesh while in the one in the evening it accused the Trinamool Congress-ruled State of underreporting of Covid-19 deaths and series of violations of lockdown rules.
"A large number of trucks carrying essential supplies, bound for Bangladesh, are stranded at different border crossing points.... A number of drivers returning from Bangladesh have not been allowed to cross the border and are stranded in Bangladesh. The unilateral action of State Government will have larger implications for the Indian Government with regard to its legally binding international commitments,” Union Home Secretary’s letter to the State Chief Secretary stated.
Bhalla also said, “This act of the State Government amounts to violation of the orders issued by MHA under Disaster Management Act, 2005.”
Bhalla said directions were given on April 24 to allow cross land border transportation of essential goods through all Indo-Nepal, Indo-Bhutan and Indo-Bangladesh borders and send a compliance report to the MHA. But we have not received the compliance report from the state government of West Bengal, he said.
In the second letter, Bhalla said: “Lockdown violations have been noted in Kolkata, Howrah by specific groups in specific localities with media reports of 'corona warriors' including the police being attacked. This necessitates stricter enforcement of lockdown. Overcrowding in bazaars, free movement of people in large numbers without masks, bathing of people in rivers, playing cricket football, serious laxity in enforcing lockdown in containment zones and poor supervision n implementation of crowd control measures by the district authorities,”
The Home Secretary also cited the reports of Centre’s Inter-Ministerial team’s findings against the West Bengal Government in tackling the pandemic and non-cooperation including the under-reporting of the number of deaths.
“There remain gaps in the surveillance and contact tracing of positive cases. State has not furnished any data regarding the households/individuals contacted/surveyed for COVID19. Indefinite delays in testing results have further affected the contact tracing, put patients at risk...Points to very low rate of testing in proportion to the population, and a very high rate of mortality of 13.2, by far the highest for any State. This is a reflection of poor surveillance, detection and testing in the State,” said the Union Home Secretary.