Bengal fighting Covid & Centre fighting Bengal, says Mamata

KOLKATA: Bengal on Wednesday appeared to temper its initial defiance of the two central Covid-19 assessment teams visiting the state through chief secretary Rajiva Sinha's assurance of cooperation, only for CM Mamata Banerjee to wade into the Centre again for allegedly sending "faulty test kits" and trying to fight her government rather than the virus.
“Some people found fault with Bengal’s low test numbers. They have talked big and sent advisories and teams to find out the ground reality here,” she said. “But the facts are different. First, the Centre did not provide us with adequate testing kits. Then it withdrew all three types of kits it had sent to Bengal because they were faulty.”
Mamata claimed that 10,000 rapid-test kits and 2,500 Real Time-PCR kits sent by the Centre were withdrawn. “But we still performed 7,037 tests because we did not depend solely on central agencies. We placed our own orders to get kits,” she said.
On the decision to send two inter-ministerial teams to monitor the state’s fight against the pandemic, Mamata said, “We are fighting Covid-19, they (the centre) are fighting us.”
The CM’s tough talking came hours after Union additional secretary Apurva Chandra, who is leading the central team deputed to Kolkata, sent a questionnaire on Bengal’s Covid management to the chief secretary. Chandra requested a detailed presentation by state health department officials and sought to know whether testing had been adequate. Asking whether the available testing facilities were being used in full, he sought an update on supply of masks and personal protective equipment to doctors and other health care workers, the Covid hospitals and quarantine centres in operation and the number of surveillance teams set up to enforce the lockdown. Chandra marked a copy of the letter to Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla.
In his reply, chief secretary Sinha promised compliance with the Centre’s orders and Supreme Court directives on combating the pandemic. However, there was a reference to the Centre’s decision to send the two teams — one for north and another for south Bengal — without prior consultation with the state. “Teams arrived without prior consultation and, therefore, there was neither opportunity to provide logistical support, as envisaged in the order, nor did the teams ask for any help,” he said.
Mamata, too, referred to Bhalla’s letter to Sinha. “A letter has been sent to us, citing SC directives. The apex court had also passed a directive against spreading of fake news,” she said.
The chief secretary used a major portion of his reply to explain how Bengal was following the lockdown guidelines and cooperating with the central teams. He said he was in touch with the central teams' leaders – Vineet Joshi is leading the second time – and had apprised them of all measures taken to contain the spread of Covid-19. He assured full compliance with the centre’s orders "in accordance with the Disaster Management Act and SC directives".
The two central teams, one in Kolkata and the other in Siliguri, did not move out of their base camps on Wednesday. The Siliguri team met Jalpaiguri divisional commissioner Ajit Bardhan, who briefed them on the situation in north Bengal and provided data on Covid-19 cases, including deaths.
The Kolkata team may make spot visits outside the state capital on Thursday.