AMN
Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla has written a letter to Chief Secretary of West Bengal after receiving feedback from two Inter Ministerial Central Teams, IMCTs which visited the state.
Mr Bhalla in the letter said, COVID-19 in West Bengal characterised by very low rate of testing and very high rate of mortality at 13.2 per cent.
He said, Mortality rate due to COVID-19 in West Bengal by far the highest for any state.
Home Secretary said, it is reflection of poor surveillance, detection and testing in the state. He said, there is also need to increase random testing in crowded clusters.
Mr Bhalla said, lockdown violations noted in Kolkata and Howrah by specific groups in specific localities with media reports of Corona warriors including police being attacked.
He said, it necessitates stricter enforcement of lockdown by enhancing Police presence.
The letter said, there has been instances of overcrowding in bazaars, bathing of people in rivers, people playing cricket, football during lockdown in West Bengal.
He said, there is serious laxity in enforcing lockdown measures in containment zones.
The Home Secretary express concern on poor community awareness especially among labourers. He also said that there should be strict action against violators.
Mr Bhalla said, testing facilities needs to be set up in hill districts.
He said, state should also ensure that quality of PPE and N95 masks conforms to ICMR standards and protective equipments are available for doctors and medical staff in non covid Hospitals also as they are equally exposed to risks.
Union Home Secretary also stressed on the need to establish a public grievance redressal mechanism for covid related queries.
He said, state should also pay attention to well being of poor and migrant labourers as per Government of India guidelines.
Mr Bhalla also asked the State to take steps to adequately compensate the workers in tea gardens of Darjeeling and Siliguri as reportedly less wages were paid to them during first phase of lockdown.