Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla wrote two letters in a span of 24 hours to West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha highlighting “poor supervision and implementation of crowd control measures by the district authorities” in controlling COVID-19, and flagged stopping of essential goods vehicles by the State government to cross over to Bangladesh during the ongoing lockdown.
In a letter sent on Wednesday, Mr. Bhalla said the State’s response to COVID-19 was characterised by a “very low rate of testing in proportion to the population and a very high rate of mortality of 13.2%”, which was a reflection of “poor surveillance, detection and testing.” He said there was a need to increase random testing in crowded clusters.
The May 5 letter says the “unilateral action” of the State government in stopping vehicles to Bangladesh will have larger implications for the Indian government with regard to its international commitments. “This act of the State government amounts to violation of the orders issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs [MHA] under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, as well as Articles 253, 256 and 257 of the Constitution of India,” the letter said. The MHA had written to States on April 24 directing them to allow transportation of essential goods through land borders along Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh and sought a compliance report.
“I am constrained to say that we have not received the compliance report from the government of West Bengal. Further, it has been reported that goods traffic through border crossings between India and Bangladesh, falling within the State of West Bengal, has still not resumed. As a result, a large number of trucks carrying essential supplies, bound for Bangladesh, are stranded at different border crossing points,” the letter said.
The letter adds that under Clause 12 of the the new MHA guidelines on lockdown measures issued on May 1, “it has been clearly spelt that no State/Union Territory shall stop movement of cargo for cross border and trade under treaties with neighbouring countries.” The letter directs the State government to allow transportation through Bangladesh borders.
Lockdown violations
In the letter, Mr. Bhalla said lockdown violations had been noted in Kolkata and Howrah by specific groups in specific localities with media reports of “Corona Warriors”. “This necessitates stricter enforcement of lockdown,” the letter said.
“There remains gaps in the surveillance and contact tracing of positive cases. The State has not furnished any data regarding the number of individuals surveyed for signs of COVID-19 symptoms,” the letter said.
Meanwhile, West Bengal had expressed its displeasure at not being consulted before the opening of the land border trade route.
(With inputs from Shiv Sahay Singh from Kolkata)
