Patel questions criteria for sending central teams to states, asks Amit Shah to send team to Guj

Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel on Tuesday questioned the government on the criteria adopted for sending central teams to states over lockdown violations and asked Home Minister Amit Shah if he would send a team to Gujarat too in view of rising cases of such breaches there.

He said the central government should not adopt a selective approach in this regard and that such teams be sent to all states, including BJP-ruled states.

"Given that rising cases and lockdown violations were criteria for sending Central teams to states, I request Amitbhai to deploy similar teams to Gujarat," he said on Twitter.

Gujarat is the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

"This exercise shouldn't be limited to selective states, all affected states must benefit from constructive inputs of Central Government," he said.

After the Home Ministry decided to send inter-ministerial central teams to states like West Bengal, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, some state governments raised strong objections to the move.

West Bengal termed the action as one which was not in the spirit of federalism, with chief minister Mamata Banerjee raising strong objections in her letter to the prime minister.

"I urge both Honb'le Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji and Home Minister Amit Shah 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," she said.