Stop Union ministers from playing dirty games: Mamata to PM

 Taking her battle with the state BJP to the Prime Minister's door, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday requested Narendra Modi to ensure that Union ministers and other leaders maintained courtesy and desisted from making loose comments about her govenrments fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Banerjee's complain to the Prime Minister came on a day when a high-level state BJP delegation met Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and sought his intervention accusing the administration of suppressing facts about the epidemic and carrying out very low number of tests.

"We are fully cooperating with the centre. Union ministers should also maintain courtesy and desist from making loose comments. Nobody should play dirty games. I said let us work together. This is not the time for politics," Banerjee told mediapersons at the state secretariat Nabanna.

On Friday, Union minister Babul Supriyo had accused the Banerjee-led administration of suppressing facts. Earlier in the day, a five-member state BJP delegation led by its chief Dilip Gosh raised issues regarding the Covid-19 scenario with Dhankhar.

"The delegation indicated that the testing in the state was very low, and about 5000 testing kits have not even being distributed. Wherever testing kits have been sent they are hardly been used.

"The delegation indicated that at Malda, 1,000 testing kits were supplied but there has not been a single test. The situation elsewhere is similarly worrisome," a Raj Bhavan media release said.

The delegation alleged that the Banerjee government was suppressing real time information.

"The confidence of the people in government data is not there at all. It (the delegation) urged the Governor to take steps to ensure that the data is accurate and available to people and media without delay," the Raj Bhavan said.

"The delegation expressed serious concern over doctors and nurses in the hospitals being quarantined one after another. This is on account of poor personal protection equipment (PPE)," it added.

The delegation also submitted to the Governor a representation of the All India Fair Price Shop Dealer's Federation wherein "it was indicated that in various areas, councillors, panchayat members and supporters were creating mental pressure on FPS dealers for subscribing rice and wheat from their shops on the pretext of relief".

They further urged the Governor to save the FPS dealers from undue and illegal demands and also ensure their safety and security," it said.

The BJP leaders also alleged complete opacity of the government with regard to Tablighi Jamaat activists, which has resulted in "not all of them being identified and quarantined". IANS