Centre must trust the states in a federal structure: Mamata

Kolkata: Stating that the Centre must trust the states as it is the implementing authority at the grassroot level to check the spread of Covid, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the complete statewide lockdown will be imposed on September 7, 11 and 12 as announced earlier.

When asked that the Centre in its

August 29 announcement had stated that any local lockdown outside containment zones cannot be imposed without prior consultation with them, Banerjee said: "The Centre must trust the states in a federal structure in which the Central government is like

parents and the states are like children. Both the Centre and state governments are elected ones."

"One must not forget that the state government is the implementing authority at the grassroot level. It is the states that better understand the local situation and what needs to be done to check the spread of the disease," she maintained.

The Chief Minister further said: "In earlier notification they had said that the state government can take decisions on lockdown. Again this time they maintained that it has to be done in consultation with them.

We have already announced the lockdown (on September 7, 11 and 12) and intimated the same to the Home Ministry. So our chapter is over."

The Bengal government on Monday extended the broad-based lockdown till September 31 with statewide complete "twice-a-week" lockdown to be imposed on 7, 11 and 12 of the month.