The Government has set up five more inter-ministerial central teams (IMCT), led by the Additional Secretary level officers, to monitor implementation of lockdown, supply of essential goods and other related issues amidst the COVID-19 crisis.

These teams will be sent to Ahmedabad and Surat in Gujarat, Thane in Maharashtra, Hyderabad in Telangana, and Chennai in Tamil Nadu where the situation is considered “especially serious”, the Union Home Ministry said today.

The IMCTs will focus their assessment on the compliance and implementation of lockdown measures as per guidelines and on issues like the supply of essential commodities, social distancing in movement of people outside their homes, preparedness of the health infrastructure, hospital facility and sample statistics in the district, safety of health professionals, availability of test kits, PPEs, masks and other safety equipment, and conditions of the relief camps for labour and poor people.

The Centre on April 20 had announced that Indore, Mumbai, Jaipur and Kolkata are among 11 cities in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and West Bengal where COVID-19 “situation is specially serious” and constituted six IMCTs to focus on the implementation of and compliance with the lockdown measures as per the guidelines, supply of essential goods and other related issues.

The six IMCTs included two each for West Bengal and Maharashtra and one each for Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to make on-spot assessment of situation and issue necessary directions to state authorities for its redressal and submit their report to central government in larger interest of general public.

However, the Centre’s decision to send the team has triggered a big row, with the Trinamool Congress government of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee questioning the need for such a delegation.

Mamata had shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, describing the Centre’s decision as “unilateral”, and alleging it was sent without prior intimation, causing “breach of established protocol”.

She also dubbed the Union government’s selection of districts with ‘serious’ COVID-19 situation as a ‘figment of imagination’.

In related turn of events, the teams which have been deputed to Jalpaiguri and Kolkata in West Bengal complained of not getting cooperation from the state government and the local administration. It was informed that the teams were being stopped from visiting the region and not given the scope to interact with health workers, or assess the ground level situation.

The IMCT deployed to Kolkata for assessing the situation related to COVID-19 management and the ongoing lockdown reportedly began their field visits only late in the afternoon on Tuesday after remaining put at a Border Security Force (BSF) facility since morning.

The team drove through various parts of the city, including Lake Gardens, Jadavpur, Bhowanipore, Ballygunge and Gariahat, after leaving their place of stay at about 5 p.m., around an hour after a strongly-worded letter from the Centre directing the state to provide all facilities to the IMCT.

Following the MHA’s missive, West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha said there was “no non-cooperation”on part of the state.

The Chief Secretary in a letter to the Home Ministry said that the IMCT had arrived without any prior consultation with the state and, therefore, there was neither such opportunity to provide any logistic support as envisaged in the April 19 order nor the team asked for any help.

Sinha also assured that the state government will follow the order under the Disaster Management Act and the directions of the Supreme Court.