Two inter-ministerial central teams — one in south Bengal and
the other in the north of the state — continued with their visits,
mostly to markets and containment zones in Calcutta and Howrah and tea
gardens on the outskirts of Siliguri on Sunday.
The Mamata Banerjee government is displeased with the teams sent by the Union home ministry.
“Look
at the performance of the teams... The team stationed in Calcutta has
sent four letters to the government asking an entire gamut of
clarifications while the Siliguri one sought replies to 36-odd questions
in a communication on Saturday. Are we appearing in an examination?”
asked a senior bureaucrat.
“The question is: who are they to assess our performance in a federal structure like ours?” added the bureaucrat.
In their communications to the chief secretary, the teams have
raised issues like the reason of forming an audit committee to assess
the actual cause of death for a Covid positive patient, lack of
ventilators, chaotic situation in M. R. Bangur Hospital and delay in
getting test results for the suspects kept at the isolation wards.
As most of these issues have also been flagged by the propaganda machinery of the BJP.
“It’s
true that everything is not perfect... But the teams’ approach is as if
they have come with the mandate from someone in Delhi to discredit
Bengal government,” said a source close to Mamata.
According to him, the ruling party in Bengal is not averse to fight a political battle with the BJP.
Amid
the murmurs on what the teams are up to, a section of officers is
discussing whether the visit or the identification of “apparent
loopholes” will contribute anything to the state’s battle against the
pandemic. “Will they take over the administration of the state?” asked
an officer.
According to the officer, the teams were mostly
sending questions and asking for documents which kept bureaucrats busy
in clerical report submission mode. “We are used to handle such
questions during elections. But this is an unusual situation and the
battle is not about preparing reports,” said a senior government
official.
Sources said chief secretary Rajiva Sinha had already
held two meetings with the team in south Bengal and held discussions
over telephone with the team in north Bengal.
Several officials
also raised questions on how the letters sent to the chief secretary by
the IMCTs were going viral on social media within a few minutes of them
reaching Nabanna. “This is unusual as communications between two
officers are not to be made to public. There is definitely a design,”
said another official.
However, a section of bureaucrats felt
that the state government should have used the opportunity to put
pressure on the centre by placing demands before the team instead of
antagonising the officers with non-co-operation.
“The chief
minister of Rajasthan held a video conference with the IMCT that visited
Jaipur for two hours to make it clear what he wanted from centre.
Similarly, the chief secretary in Maharastra also held a series of
meetings with the team to place demands... But Bengal apparently could
not use the opportunity. It could have cooperated with the team after
registering its reservations over the way the teams were sent,” said a
bureaucrat.
Another official said it would be unjustified to say the team in south Bengal did not do anything here.
“They
raised some valid questions. The state government was forced to
initiate action after the questions were raised. A special officer was
appointed yesterday to look after the affairs in M. R. Bangur hospital
after the team had drawn attention regarding the pathetic state of the
dedicated Covid hospital in Calcutta. The government was forced to
reveal the actual number of deaths of Covid-19 patients, which they were
hiding before,” said the official.
https://www.telegraphindia.com
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