West Bengal Governor Urges Mamata To Cooperate With Centre In War Against COVID-19

West Bengal Governor Urges Mamata To Cooperate With Centre In War Against COVID-19
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West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee
Highlights

West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar on Tuesday urged Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to support the Centre in combating and containing COVID-19 pandemic.

Kolkata: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar on Tuesday urged Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to support the Centre in combating and containing COVID-19 pandemic. The Governor said that cooperation and not confrontation is needed to combat the coronavirus curse. He requested the West Bengal chief minister to "synergetically cooperate with the Central Team to wean away the miseries of the people."


The Centre had earlier flagged 7 districts in West Bengal which were among those affected by COVID-19, leading to chief minister Mamata Banerjee objecting to the actions of the Centre. The West Bengal chief minister asked the Central government to spell out the criteria for the selection of the districts without which the move would go against the spirit of federalism, she said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday, flagged the districts of Kolkata, Howrah, East Medinipur, North 24 Paraganas, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri as areas where the COVID-19 situation was serious. The Centre constituted inter-ministerial central teams (IIMCTs) to visit selected areas in Maharashtra, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The IIMCTS reached West Bengal on Monday and will make an on the ground evaluation of the COVID-19 situation.

However, taking strong objection to the Centre's intervention, Mamata Banerjee asked the Centre to spell the criteria first and wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi describing the move as a unilateral one. The Centre, at the Health ministry's briefing, responded that the criteria for the selection of these areas were based on the case-load and growth rate. The purpose was to lend assistance to the states, the Central government officials clarified.

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