A confrontation between Centre and West Bengal is brewing on Monday over the Ministry of Home Affair's (MHA) decision to send inter-ministerial teams to four states for an on-the-spot assessment following "especially serious" situation arising out of large-scale violation of COVID-19 lockdown norms, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee making it clear that it will be difficult to cooperate without "valid reasons".
Separately, the MHA has also asked Kerala to "rectify" its directions to relax lockdown in seven out of 14 districts, saying they were "dilution" and "violation" of its April 15 guidelines even as the state government expressed confidence that its clarification to the Centre would clear the air and they would be allowed to go ahead with its plans.
The latest flashpoint emerged over the MHA's Sunday order to send six Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) headed by Additional Secretary level officers to 11 districts -- seven in West Bengal, two in Maharashtra and one each in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh – citing a number of violations to the lockdown measures that was posing a "serious health hazard and risk for spread" of COVID-19 which is against the "interest of public".
The teams will be sent to Kolkata, Howrah, Medinipur East, 24 Parganas North, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, Mumbai and Pune (Maharashtra), Indore (Madhya Pradesh) and Jaipur (Rajasthan), invoking powers provided by the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
However, the Centre's decision has not gone down well with the West Bengal government with Chief Minister Banerjee saying she “welcomes all constructive support and suggestions” from the Centre but the basis of MHA order was “unclear”.
“I urge both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah 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," she tweeted.
Banerjee also shot off a letter to Modi saying the central teams were sent to the state without intimation and was in “breach of protocol”. She said the state administration was kept in dark about this and such “unilateral action” by the Centre was “not desirable”.
Responding to a question during daily briefing on COVID-19, MHA Joint Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava said the purpose of sending teams was to “assist and support” states to combat the pandemic. “The teams are selected keeping in mind health, administrative and disaster management aspects. The states will benefit from this,” she said.
In separate orders sent to the four states on Sunday, the MHA has said that violence against frontline healthcare professionals, "complete" violation of social distancing norms outside banks, PDS shops and in market places and movement of private and commercial vehicles with passengers in urban areas among others were reported.
"These incidents, if they are allowed to occur without any restraining measures in hotspot districts or emerging hotspots, with large outbreaks of clusters, pose a serious health hazard, both for the population of these districts and for that living on other areas of the country. After analysing the prevalence of such violations in major hotspot districts, it is clear to the Central government that the situation is especially serious" in these 11 districts, it said.
The central teams will prepare reports focussing their assessment on how the administration is implementing the lockdown measures as well as issues like the supply of essential commodities, social distancing in public places, preparedness of the health infrastructure and hospital facilities and sample statistics in the district.
The teams, which were flown to the nearest airports of their assignment areas, will also look at the issue of 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. The states were asked to provide logistic support to the teams for their accommodation, transportation, PPEs and extend all cooperation for their visits to local areas, production of documents/records.
Maharashtra has reported 4,203 COVID cases and 223 deaths while Madhya Pradesh has 1,407 cases and 70 deaths. In Rajasthan, 1,478 cases were reported while the death toll was 14 and West Bengal has 339 cases and 12 deaths as on Sunday evening.