Centre should deploy its teams in Gujarat also, says Ahmed Patel

Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel said on Tuesday that a Central team should also be sent to Gujarat and that the exercise should not be limited to selective states as all should benefit from the central government's input.

"Given that rising cases and lockdown violations were criteria for sending central teams to states, I request Amit bhai (Union Home Minister Amit Shah) to deploy similar teams to Gujarat. This exercise shouldn't be limited to selective states, all affected states must benefit from constructive inputs of Central Govt," read a tweet by Patel.

He also tweeted pictures of lockdown violations in Bharuch along with the tweet.

This comes after the Centre decided to send two Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (ICMTs) to visit and monitor some districts of West Bengal without informing the state government.

The Centre has constituted six IMCTs, two each for West Bengal and Maharashtra and one each for Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan "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."

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday and said that the central teams have kept the State government in 'complete dark.'

"While I appreciate the proactiveness shown by the Central government in sending their teams to West Bengal, the same was done without prior information and hence is a breach of established protocol," stated the letter.

( With inputs from ANI )