The West Bengal Chief Secretary received a letter three times in a row from the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding lockdown violation and incidents of violence against healthcare workers in districts like Howrah, Kolkata, Medinipur, Darjeeling, and Kalimpong. The letter was written by MHA on April 19 and addressed to Rajiv Sinha, WB Chief Secretary.
“After analyzing the prevalence of such violations in major hotspot districts, it is clear to the Central Government that the situation is especially serious in Kolkata, Howrah, Medinipur East, 24 Parganas North, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, and Jalpaiguri districts in the State of West Bengal,” says the letter from MHA. The letter states that two Inter-Ministerial Central (IMCT) teams will be deployed to seven districts of West Bengal to check and file reports on the COVID-19 situation.
In a tweet, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the Central’s decision to deploy IMCTs is “unclear”.
Banerjee tweeted, “We welcome all constructive support & suggestions, especially from the Central Govt in negating the #Covid19 crisis. However, the basis on which Centre is proposing to deploy IMCTs in select districts across India including few in WB under Disaster Mgmt Act 2005 is unclear.”
“I urge both Honb’le Prime Minister @NarendraModi Ji & Home Minister @AmitShah Ji 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.”
(courtesy: Republic World)