Centre sends COVID-19 inspection teams to Gujarat, Telangana, Tamil Nadu

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 24

The Centre on Friday constituted three new Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) under the leadership of Additional Secretary-level officers and sent them to review and monitor the COVID-19 situation in Gujarat, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.

Punya Salila Srivatava, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), said these teams would visit Ahmedabad and Surat in Gujarat, Hyderabad in Telangana and Chennai in Tamil Nadu.

Briefing reporters here on the government’s move, the MHA official said these teams are in addition to six IMCTS constituted earlier and sent to states, including West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. These IMCTs have already in the states and are doing their job of reviewing the implementation of the lockdown measures after making ground assessment of the situation prevailing in select districts.

Two of these teams have been sent to West Bengal — one team to Kolkata, Howrah, North 24 Parganas and East Medinipur and the other to Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Kalimpong.

The teams comprise public health specialists and officers of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), whose expertise can be leveraged by the state government for management of COVID-19 pandemic.

The teams were deputed under the authority conferred on the Central government under Section 35 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 which states that “… the Central Government shall take all such measures as it deems necessary or expedient for the purpose of disaster management”.