A day after the Centre’s decision to send six Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) to monitor the situation due to coronavirus pandemic came out, a controversy erupted as three out of four states where these teams are to be send are ruled by the opposition.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was the first to contradict with the Centre’s decision as yesterday, she wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about a team arriving in Kolkata much before she was formally told on the phone by Home Minister.

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Taking it to Twitter, Mamata Banerjee said, “We welcome all constructive support & suggestions, especially from the Central Govt in negating the COVID-19 crisis. However, the basis on which Centre is proposing to deploy IMCTs in select districts across India including few in WB under Disaster Mgmt Act 2005 is unclear.”

She further questioned the criterion used by the government to form these teams.

“I urge both Honb’le Prime Minister @NarendraModi Ji and Home Minister @AmitShah Ji to share the criterion used for this. Until then I am afraid, we would not be able to move ahead on this as without valid reasons this might not be consistent with the spirit of federalism,” she added.

As per the press note released by the government on Monday, there are seven districts of West Bengal on the team’s watch list namely Kolkata, Howrah, Medinipur East, 24 Parganas North, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri.

Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress Party contended why there is no IMCT sent to Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi.

As per the reports, TMC also claimed that there are three districts named in the list which has not reported any case of coronavirus in the last 14 days.

TMC MPs Derek O’Brien and Sudip Bandyopadhyay claimed that the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was informed about the IMCT team’s visit three hours after its arrival which was ‘unacceptable’.

TMC dubbed IMCT’s visit as ‘adventure tourism’ in the state.

These teams are designated two each for West Bengal and Maharashtra and one each for Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to make an on-spot assessment of situation aroused due to coronavirus crisis and issue necessary directions to State Authorities for its redressal and submit their report to Central Government.

“The situation is especially serious in Indore (MP), Mumbai and Pune (Maharashtra), Jaipur (Rajasthan) and Kolkata, Howrah, Medinipur East, 24 Parganas North, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri in West Bengal,” Home Ministry had said in a press note.

Among the states listed in the government’s list, only Madhya Pradesh is ruled by BJP.

The inter-ministerial teams are to focus on complaints over the implementation of lockdown measures, the supply of essential commodities, social distancing, health infrastructure, safety of health professionals and conditions of relief camps for labourers and poor families.