West Bengal Chief Secretary Writes To MHA, Assures Cooperation To Central Teams

Kolkata: The Chief Secretary of West Bengal wrote to the Union Home Secretary on Tuesday evening assuring the Centre of cooperation with the Central teams deputed to the state to make an on the spot assessment of lockdown measures and the steps against COVID-19 in selected districts. He assured the Centre, in his letter of cooperation with regard to the implementation of the orders of the Central government under the Disaster Management Act 2005, as well as the directions of the Supreme Court of India.

In his letter, the West Bengal Chief Secretary stated that he had met the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) in Kolkata and shared the state government reports with them. He further clarified in his letter that the team, as on Tuesday evening was visiting different parts of the city to make an on the spot assessment of the implementation of the lockdown measures.

The letter further added that the IMCT headed by Mr Apurva Chandra met him on Monday and had an interaction with him on the implementation of lockdown measures and other efforts of the state government to contain COVID-19. He also pointed out that he was in touch with the other team in Siliguri as well.

The Chief Secretary of West Bengal further said that it was not correct to say that the IMCT had not been provided with any cooperation by the state administration and that the teams had arrived in West Bengal without any prior consultation with the state government.

Maybe recalled that the Union Home Secretary wrote a strongly-worded letter on Tuesday to the chief secretary of West Bengal over lack of requisite cooperation to the IMCT from state and local authorities in Kolkata and Jalpaiguri of West Bengal. The MHA letter asked the chief secretary to ensure compliance of its order and also referred to the powers of the Central government under the Disaster Management Act. The Home Secretary's letter also made a mention of Supreme Court orders of March 31, 2020, on the need for all states to comply with the directives of the Centre in the interest of public safety.