MHA to send Inter-Ministerial Central Teams to Covid-19 hit districts of West Bengal for spot-assessment

According to reports, these two Central teams will visit West Bengal's Kolkata, Howrah, East Medinipur, North 24 Parganas, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri districts, which have been badly hit by novel coronavirus.

"These two IMCTs, which have been constituted by exercising the powers conferred under Section 35(1), 35(2)(a), 35(2)(e) and 35(2)(i) of the Disaster Management Act 2005, will visit the seven districts of West Bengal, make an on-the-spot assessment of the situation, issue necessary directions to the state authorities for redressal of the situation and submit their reports to the Central government in larger interest of general public," a senior official of the MHA told IBNS.

"These two IMCTs will be led by Department of Defencce's Additional Secretary, Apurva Chandra, and Ministry of Human Resource Development's Additional Secretary, Vineet Joshi," the official said.

Sources in the MHA said that NDMA's Joint Secretary, Ramesh Kumar Ganta, All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health (AIIH & PH)'s professor and Public Health Specialist R.R. Pati, Department of Consumer Affairs' Director, Sitaram Meena, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare's Deputy Secretary, Zile Singh Vical, AIIH & PH's professor Shibani Dutta, NDMA's Advisor (Ops) Ajay Gangwar, Department of Consumer Affairs' Director, Dharmesh Makwana, and MoHFW's Deputy Secretary, N.B. Mani, will be the members of these two IMCTs.

"These IMCTs will mainly focus their assessment on the compliance and implementation of lockdown measures as per guidelines issued under the Disaster Management Act 2005," an MHA official said.

"These Central teams will also focus on other important issues like the supply of essential commodities, social distancing in movement of people outside their homes, preparedness of the health infrastructure, hospital facility and sample statistics in the districts, safety of health professionals, availability of Covid-19 test kits, PPEs, masks and other safety-and-protective equipment, and conditions of the relief camps for labourers and poor people," he added.

Sending a letter to the Chief Secretary of West Bengal, the MHA has asked the state government to provide the teams logistic support, to arrange their accommodation, transportation, PPEs and all cooperation for their visits to local areas.

The state government has also been asked to produce all documents and records as requested by IMCT.

MHA officials said that the IMCTs will commence their visits within 72 hours from the date of the order (Apr 19).

The Centre also observed that situation in these seven hotspot districts of West Bengal were very serious as multiple incidents of violation of lockdown and safety norms have been reported from those areas.

(Images: Avishek Mitra/IBNS)