The Centre on Friday constituted five more inter-ministerial teams (IMCT) for spot assessment of lockdown implementation in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana and Tamil Nadu’s Covid-19 pandemic affected areas. Two teams will soon land in Ahmedabad and Surat and one team each will visit Thane, Hyderabad and Chennai.
Six teams were constituted a few days ago — two teams each for West Bengal and Maharashtra and one team each for Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Now in total, Maharashtra is dealing with three Central teams in Mumbai, Pune and latest in Thane.
The IMCT will look into the implementation of the lockdown norms and administration of health sector in these areas. “In some of the districts of the country, a number of violations of the lockdown measures have been reported, posing a serious health hazard and risk for spread of Covid-19, which is against general interest of public. These violations include incidents ranging from violence on frontline healthcare professionals, attacks on police personnel, violations of social distancing norms in market places and opposition to setting up of quarantine centres and so on,” said the Union Home Ministry in statement issued in relation of the new five teams.
These teams would make on-spot assessment of situation and issue necessary directions to State authorities for its redressal and submit their report to the Central Government.
The situation is especially serious in major hotspot districts or emerging hotspots like Ahmedabad and Surat (Gujarat); Thane (Maharashtra); Hyderabad (Telangana); and Chennai (Tamil Nadu). These teams would use expertise of the Centre and support State efforts to fight and contain spread of Covid-19 effectively.
According to Home Ministry officials, except West Bengal, all States are co-operating with the Central teams and working jointly. The Centre and TMC-ruled West Bengal locked horns many times in past three weeks. The Centre’s teams in Kolkata and Jalpaiguri complained that the State administration is not even giving logistic support and preventing State’s health officials to interact with them.
The IMCTs would also be focusing on a range of issues including compliance and implementation of lockdown measures as per guidelines issued under the Disaster Management Act 2005; supply of essential commodities; social distancing in movement of people outside their homes; preparedness of health infrastructure, hospital facilities and sample statistics in the district; safety of health professionals, availability of test kits, PPEs, masks and other safety equipment; and conditions of the relief camps for labour and poor people.