Mumbai/Bhopal/Lucknow: The inter-ministerial central teams formed to assess the situation in Covid-19 hotspot districts on Tuesday began their three-day visits to Maharashtra, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
A team led by additional secretary Manoj Joshi visited Mumbai’s Worli Koliwada area for an inspection of the containment area, which has the highest cases in Mumbai, 425. Another team led by Sanjay Malhotra, additional secretary, held a meeting with Pune’s divisional commissioner and other senior officials.
A state government official, requesting anonymity, said the team raised concerns over the high mortality rate in Mumbai. “They were also concerned that containment in certain areas such as Dharavi was not being followed strictly,” the official said.
Officials said chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, health minister Rajesh Tope and other top Maharashtra government officials interacted with the central teams through video conferencing. Thackeray told the teams that the Centre should make arrangement for travel of six lakh migrant labourers stuck in Maharashtra and also study why a majority of Covid-19 patients in India are asymptomatic.
Maharashtra is the worst-hit state by the pandemic.
In Madhya Pradesh, a central team visited Indore’s containment zones, accompanied by several officials including divisional commissioner Akash Tripathi and district collector Manish Singh.
Tripathi said the team visited various containment zones to see if the lockdown restrictions were being followed completely. The team wanted to know if the number of drones being used to monitor the movement of people could be increased. “The team looked satisfied with the arrangements.”
{{/usCountry}}Tripathi said the team visited various containment zones to see if the lockdown restrictions were being followed completely. The team wanted to know if the number of drones being used to monitor the movement of people could be increased. “The team looked satisfied with the arrangements.”
{{/usCountry}}In Jaipur, chief minister Ashok Gehlot said a central team met chief secretary DB Gupta, additional chief secretary (home) Rajeeva Swarup and other officials before meeting him.
Gehlot said he raised the issue of central procurement of equipment and absence of financial grant by the Centre to the states to fight Covid-19. The team will be in Jaipur for two more days, he said, adding that it expressed satisfaction with the implementation of lockdown and other measures for containment of Covid-19.
“A five-member team of the Central government has arrived here for 4-5 days to help the state,” health minister Raghu Shara said.
In West Bengal, central teams were allowed to visit the containment zones after a warning by Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla. The teams had complained to the home ministry that local administration was not cooperating with them.
Congress leader Ahmed Patel said a Central team should also be sent to Gujarat and the exercise should not be limited to select states. “Given the rising cases and lockdown violations was criteria for sending the central teams to states, I request [Union home minister] Amit [Shah] Bhai to deploy similar teams to Gujarat also,” Patel tweeted.
The Centre has constituted two teams each for West Bengal and Maharashtra and one each for Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan for the assessment of the situation and for issuing necessary directions to state authorities and to submit their reports to the Centre.
The teams will focus on complaints about the implementation of lockdown measures as per guidelines, check the supply of essential commodities, measures to ensure social distancing, the preparedness of health infrastructure, the safety of health professionals and conditions of the relief camps for workers and the poor.
Bhalla wrote to chief secretaries of all states and union territories on Monday asking them to comply with the Centre’s “revised and consolidated” guidelines issued on April 15 for easing of lockdown norms from Monday.