As West Bengal on Monday reported 54 fresh coronavirus cases, the highest on a single day, the Centre despatched a team to the state to assess the "serious" COVID-19 situation, provoking anger of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who made clear her unwillingness to cooperate with it.
She shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi where she voiced her displeasure at the state government having been kept in dark about the visit in violation of the established protocol.
West Bengal has so far reported 330 cases, including 12 deaths, and has been accused by the Centre of allowing gradual dilution of the lockdown regulations. Reacting to the Centre's letter last week, Banerjee had said the Union government was only interested in "extra vigilance in some specific areas".
The Union home ministry said on Monday morning the COVID-19 situation is "especially serious" in Mumbai, Pune, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata and a few other places in West Bengal, and that the violation of lockdown measures risk the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The places mentioned by the Ministry of Home Affairs include Kolkata, Howrah, East Medinipur, North 24 Parganas, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri in West Bengal.
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The central government has constituted six Inter- Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) to make an on-spot assessment of the COVID-19 situation in these places and issue necessary directions to the four states -- Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and West Bengal -- for redress.
Two of these teams have landed in Kolkata.
The teams will submit their report to the central government in the larger interest of the general public, the ministry said.
"The IMCTs will focus on compliance and implementation of the lockdown measures as per guidelines, the supply of essential commodities, social distancing, the preparedness of health infrastructure, the safety of health professionals and conditions of relief camps for labourers and poor people," a home ministry spokesperson said.
A miffed Banerjee shot off a letter to Modi complaining that she was informed by the Union Home Minister Amit Shah late in the afternoon, whereas the central teams have already landed in Bengal in the morning hours before the telephonic conversation.
Calling it a breach of established protocol, Banerjee said, The central teams kept the state government in dark and had approached BSF for logistic support and was moving in the field without informing the state government.
Earlier in the afternoon, the feisty TMC leader expressed her displeasure in a series of tweets and sought to know the rationale behind the formation of central teams to visit the states.
She urged Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Shah to share with her the criteria to be followed by them for the assessment, without which her government "would not be able to move ahead".
"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, Banerjee tweeted.
"I urge both Honble 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," she added.
Echoing Banerjee, West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha came down heavily on the Centre for sending the teams to the state without following the "laid-down norms".
Later in the evening, the central teams were seen arriving at Nabanna, the state secretariat, to discuss the situation with the chief secretary.
The development also set off a political duel in Bengal with the BJP backing the Centre and the states ruling TMC and opposition CPI(M) accusing the Modi government of violating the federal structure.
The central government did the right thing by sending its teams. They will surely find out how the lockdown norms are being violated and how the state government is trying to hide the real picture. The state government, in order to hide figures and facts, is pushing the people towards a much more dangerous situation, West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said.
Senior TMC leader and Minister Partha Chatterjee said the Centre, instead of fighting the pandemic, is trying to score political brownie points over the TMC government by blatantly violating the federal structure.
Senior CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty shared Chatterjees view and said it is not the time for petty centralstate politics and everybody has to work unitedly to fight the pandemic.
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