THE Central Government today constituted Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs), two for Gujarat and one each for Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra (area of responsibility of earlier constituted Mumbai-Pune team expanded) to make an on-spot assessment of the situation and issue necessary directions to State Authorities for its redressal and submit their report to Central Government in the larger interest of the general public.
According to Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the situation is serious in major hotspot districts or emerging hotspots like Ahmedabad and Surat (Gujarat); Thane (Maharashtra); Hyderabad (Telangana); and Chennai (Tamil Nadu). These teams, according to MHA, would use the expertise of the Centre and augment State efforts to fight and contain the spread of COVID-19 effectively.
“The IMCTs would be focusing on a range of issues including compliance and implementation of lockdown measures as per guidelines issued under the Disaster Management Act 2005; supply of essential commodities; social distancing in the movement of people outside their homes; preparedness of health infrastructure, hospital facilities 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”, says MHA.
The Committees have been constituted by the Central Government in the exercise of the powers, conferred, inter alia, under Section 35(1), 35(2)(a), 35(2)(e) and 35(2)(i) of the Disaster Management Act 2005. Governments of States/UTs have also been advised that while they can impose stricter measures than contemplated in the MHA Guidelines issued under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, they shall not dilute them.
Earlier, the MHA had dispatched IMCTs to visit Jaipur (Rajasthan), Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Kolkata, Howrah, Medinipur East, 24 Parganas North, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri districts in West Bengal and Pune and Mumbai in Maharashtra to make an on-spot assessment of the situation.
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