NEW DELHI: Adopting a tough approach towards large-scale violations of MHA lockdown guidelines in Covid-19 hotspots such as Indore, Mumbai, Pune, Jaipur, Kolkata and other places in West Bengal , the home ministry has deployed six inter-ministerial central teams (IMCTs) to make on-the-spot assessment of the situation in these areas, issue necessary directions to the state authorities for redressal and submit a report to the Central government in the interest of the general public.“Situation is specially 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,” the home ministry said in a press release on Monday. A health ministry official said the criteria for identifying these areas of concern was the higher number of cases and high rate of growth in cases or low doubling rate of cases. This tells us where we need to have an effective intervention so that those areas do not lead to a larger number of cases further, he added.Elaborating on violations of the lockdown measures in the hotspots identified for IMCT visits, the home ministry said they included incidents of violence against frontline healthcare professionals; complete violation of social distancing norms outside banks, PDS shops etc and in market places; and movement of private and commercial vehicles with passengers in urban areas.The order on IMCTs, which a home ministry officer said are at their respective destinations, invited objections from the states on Monday. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee took to Twitter to allege that the basis on which Centre was deploying IMCTs in select districts across India including few in West Bengal under Disaster Management Act 2005, was unclear.“I urge both Honb’le Prime Minister @NarendraModi Ji & 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 stated.MHA official Punya Salila Srivastava clarified that the purpose of constituting inter-ministerial teams is to provide support & assistance to the states in their endeavour to fight Covid-19. She said the teams have been very carefully constituted so that support can be provided on health, administrative & disaster managements aspects. “I am sure the states will benefit,” she stated.“The orders mention the observation of the Supreme Court but they have been issued under various provisions of Section 35 of the Disaster Management Act,” Srivastava added. The apex court had on March 31 observed that “we trust and expect that all concerned viz. state governments, public authorities, and citizens of this country will faithfully comply with the directives and orders issued by the Union of India in letter and spirit in the interest of public safety”.Two IMCTs each have been tasked with visiting hotspots in West Bengal and Maharashtra, while one team each will make an assessment in Indore, Madhya Pradesh and Jaipur, Rajasthan. Each team comprises 5 members and is led by an additional secretary-level officer.The duration of the visit of IMCTs will be decided by the team leader after assessing the ground level situation.The teams shall focus on complaints of implementation of lockdown measures as per guidelines, supply of essential commodities, social distancing, preparedness of health infrastructure, safety of health professionals and conditions of the relief camps for labour and poor people. They will also the sample statistics in the district, safety of health professionals, availability of test kits, PPEs, masks and other safety equipment.Pointing to the large-scale violations in the districts of concern — Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra; Jaipur in Rajasthan; Indore in Madhya Pradesh; and Kolkata, Howrah, 24 Parganas, Medinipur, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Kalimpong in West Bengal, the home ministry said that if the incidents of violations are allowed to occur without any restraining measures in hotspot districts or emerging hotspots or even places where large outbreaks or clusters may be expected, pose a serious health hazard, both for the population of these districts and for that living in other areas of the country.“After analysing the prevalence of such violations in major hotspot districts, it is clear to the Central Government that the situation is especially serious in the above mentioned areas and expertise of the Centre needs to be used,” the ministry said in a release.The ministry of civil aviation is handling air transportation of the IMCT members while the respective state governments will provide logistic support for the team’s accommodation (lodging and boarding), transportation, PPEs and extend all cooperation to the teams for their visits to local areas and production of documents/records as requested.The IMCTs include representatives from NDMA, health ministry, agriculture ministry, department of financial services, power ministry, defence ministry HRD, department of Consumer affairs, AIIMS, department of food and public distribution, food processing ministry as well as public health experts.