‘No politics please’: CM rebuts MHA’s lockdown laxity charge

Kolkata: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “crosscheck facts” before blaming the

Bengal

government after the ministry of home affairs sent a stern missive to the state alleging “gross violation of lockdown measures” and warned of penal action against officers failing to enforce the lockdown under the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

The MHA, in its letter to the chief secretary and dir-ector general of police, pointed to lockdown violations in several parts of the city: Rajabazar, Narkeldanga, Topsia, Metiabruz, Garden Reach, Ekbalpore and Maniktala. “Significantly, areas such as Narkeldanga are reportedly witnessing more Covid-19-like cases,” the letter states. The ministry also expressed its dismay over the opening of non-essential shops and the manner in which people were thronging vegetable, fish and meat shops in markets in the specified locations.

“We are fighting a disease,” the CM rebutted. “Our aim is not to keep people hungry,” she said while urging people to maintain social distancing measures while shopping for essentials.

Banerjee, however, did not go into a point-by-point exchange. “We are cooperating with the Centre. But some people are into mudslinging. This is not the time to do politics. Let us come together and fight the virus unite-dly,” she said, indicating that such provocations were coming from the BJP’s IT cell.

The state government has set up a Restriction and Relaxation Task Force, under the chief secretary, to examine proposals to resume operations.

Under Banerjee’s “humane lockdown” regime, relaxation has been given to shops selling staples, sweet shops and flower markets. Flour mills, oil mills and bakeries have also been allowed to resume operations, while home delivery is also on. The government has also opened tea gardens on the Centre’s directive. Police, however, sprang into action in “Covid-19-sensitive” areas on Saturday evening, increasing arrests of people loitering about.

The MHA’s letter also referred to reports of police “allowing” religious congregations. “It has been reported that police have been allowing religious congregations. Free ration has been distributed not through the institutional delivery system, but by political leaders. This may have resulted in spread of Covid-19 infection,” the letter states.

The chief minister urged the Union home minister to hold a meeting with security agencies in strictly manning the international borders Bengal shares with three countries. “We need strict manning of the international borders, because Bengal shares unfenced borders with neighbouring countries at many stretches. I have reports that some people sneaked into our territory a couple of days ago. Bengal shares borders with three countries. If Bengal becomes unsafe, it will affect other bordering states. Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and the entire Northeast can become vulnerable,” she said.

She also raised the issue of a numbers mismatch between the Centre and the state over Covid-19-positive cases and deaths. “This is not fair. I said earlier that we are not announcing these numbers on our own. The government is announcing them after an audit performed by the medical experts’ committee, including the reason of death. There have been instances when patients having chronic heart and kidney ailments took admission in hospitals and were later tested Covid-19-positive. We sent the figures to the experts’ panel following their death to ascertain whether the deaths were due to Covid-19 or co-morbidities. I told the PM to crosscheck facts before heaping allegations. Fact is, most Covid-19 patients are responding to medicine,” the CM said.


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