Kolkata: The inter-ministerial central teams (IMCT) continued their spot assessment of the Covid-19 situation in Kolkata on Tuesday with a stopover at the at BSF office. The IMCT largely took logistical support from BSF and SSB instead of the Kolkata Police. The IMCT is also likely to visit seven districts in the state.
This comes after initial hesitation from the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government and a letter sent from Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla to Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha asking the state to comply with the MHA order.
“It has been brought to the notice of this ministry that the teams at Kolkata and Jalpaiguri are not getting the co-operation from the state and local authorities. In fact, they have been specifically restrained from making any visits, interacting with health professionals and assessing the ground level situation.
This amounts to obstructing the implementation of the orders issued by the central government,” reads the letter. Sinha on the other hand spoke about the state government’s stand. “The central team held a meeting with us yesterday.
We briefed them today also and they wanted to go around Kolkata. Our government’s stand in a set up like this, we would have liked it if we were intimated before they arrived. CM had written to the PM on this,” said Rajiva Sinha who also said the protocol is the central team will meet the chief secretary first which did not happen.
However, the state has sent a local police officer with the central teams. Meanwhile, the number of Covid-19 active cases in West Bengal went to 274 from 245 with 29 new cases reported on Tuesday. The total number of casualties increased by 3 taking the death toll to 15 and 5,016 people are in government quarantine.
