West Bengal chief secretary Rajiva Sinha on Monday said that the Central government teams — who are in Bengal to check the COVID-19 situation — won’t be allowed to visit different areas across the state without briefing the state government about the reasons they chose to come here. He said they should convince him that there were enough reasons for them to check the ground situation.
Sinha said that the state government was not informed prior to the teams’ visit and the members had arrived in the state within 15 minutes after he was informed.
The Home Ministry, in an order issued on Sunday, mentioned that the situation with respect to COVID-19 is “especially serious” in certain parts of Bengal like Kolkata, Howrah, East Midnapore, North 24 Parganas, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri and two teams would be sent to these areas to assess the situation. The teams will “make an on the spot assessment of the situation, issue necessary directions to the state authorities” and submit their report to the Central government.
The chief secretary said that the team members had started visiting certain areas without taking any briefing from the state government and had taken the help of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Border Security Force (BSF) – Central paramilitary forces – to move into the areas. “In this, they have flouted the order issued by the Centre,” Sinha said. The order mentioned that the Central teams will take the support of the state government in moving around the state.
“It is very clear that ‘health’ is a state subject but the current situation is of concern nationally. It is not that if the Centre asks us to follow something, we won’t do it. But the way teams have been sent and they have not informed us on time, and are going around with help of Central forces, it appears that we are trying to hide something,” the chief secretary said.
He added that the team in south Bengal had been asked to meet him and take the briefing of the situation and the one in north Bengal had been asked to talk to him over phone. “If after that, they feel the need to go to some areas, they can. But unless we are convinced there are enough reasons, we will not let them go around different areas,” Sinha said.
He added that it was not clear to the state government how the Centre had selected the districts where the teams would visit. Mentioning Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong and East Midnapore, he said that it had been several days since COVID-19 cases had been reported from these areas.
The Central team called on the chief secretary in the evening at the state administrative headquarters, Nabanna.
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