Central teams in Bengal: PM, Amit Shah must explain, says Mamata

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home minister Amit Shah to explain why the Centre wants to send teams to Bengal to examine violations and dilutions of the Coronavirus lockdown.

Two inter-ministerial teams had already landed in Kolkata hours before her tweets, aiming to visit seven districts, including state capital Kolkata, to investigate reports of lockdown rules being violated.

In an angry letter to Prime Minister Modi, the Chief Minister wrote that while the Home minister spoke to her around 1 pm to inform her about the visit, the teams had already landed in Kolkata airport at 10.10 am, "much before our conversation".

The Home ministry's order on the teams' visit also reached only 30 minutes before they arrived, she wrote, alleging a breach of protocol.

Banerjee also protested allegations that the lockdown had been violated in Bengal and the situation was "specifically serious" in some districts. "The selection of districts and observations made unilaterally are nothing but figments of imagination and unfortunate," she raged.

Insisting that her state had been ahead in announcing the lockdown and its extension, the Chief Minister said "such unilateral action on the part of the Central government is not desirable at all".

Earlier, she had tweeted that until the Prime Minister and the Home minister shared why the decision was taken to send the teams, her state would not be able to cooperate.

Both central teams landed in Bengal within 15 minutes of the state government being informed, Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha told reporters. "They are behaving as if we are hiding something. We will not let them roam around in the state. The way they have come and gone to the field with the BSF, we cannot accept this. We have said come and talk to us then decide if you need to go into the field," Sinha said.

The Centre is believed to be concerned about reports of "dilution" and "violation" of lockdown in Bengal; for example, sweet shops have been allowed to do business across the state, originally for four hours a day but later extended to eight hours. That changed on Monday again. Both sweet shops and flower markets will now open only from 8 am to 12 noon.

Based on Intelligence reports, MHA had said in its letter of April 10 that markets are open and crowded, religious congregations have allegedly been allowed and there is crowding at ration shops where political leaders are distributing rations.

Following this, on April 17, Banerjee did crack the whip and said cops should be deployed at marketplaces to ensure there was no crowding and the lockdown should be enforced more strongly than before. Religious congregations were banned by the state but there have been a couple of gatherings that the police had to disperse.

Sources said NDMA's Joint Secretary, Ramesh Kumar Ganta, All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health (AIIH & PH)'s professor and Public Health Specialist RR 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.

The teams have been assigned to visit Kolkata, Howrah, Midnapore East, North 24-Parganas, Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri. The state government has to provide accommodation, travel.

54 people have tested positive in the state in the past 24 hours, taking the total number to 245 and seven have been released after recovery.