“The Centre is trying to malign our CM Mamata Banerjee. It sent us faulty testing kits, and the state government is being held responsible for the Centre covering up its own incompetence,” said Education Minister Partha Chatterjee. (File Photo)
The TMC Tuesday slammed the Centre and Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, accusing the Union government of deflecting blame on the state government to cover up “its own incompetence” in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
“The Centre is trying to malign our CM Mamata Banerjee. It sent us faulty testing kits, and the state government is being held responsible for the Centre covering up its own incompetence,” said Education Minister Partha Chatterjee.
The TMC Secretary General accused the Narendra Modi government of not reacting fast enough when the virus started spreading. “They were busy with Madhya Pradesh. They were busy with the Gujarat tour of US President Donald Trump,” Chatterjee added.
The ruling party’s response came a day after a central team that had been sent to the state to assess the situation in the state blamed low testing, weak surveillance and tracking, and discrepancies in reporting cases were responsible for a 12.8% mortality rate among COVID-19 patients in the state. This was the highest figure recorded in India, it claimed.
Minister of State for Health Chandrima Bhattacharya challenged the central team’s claim that her department had been withholding information. “We are challenging that [claim], let ICMR prove that we are hiding information. They are trying to portray it as if we are responsible for the increase in cases in Bengal,” Bhattacharya told reporters at a press meet.
State minister Rajib Banerjee, and MP Shantanu Sen, who is a doctor, also present. “The Centre should concentrate on giving financial packages to states,” said Banerjee.