KOLKATA 17 APRIL: After Union Health Ministry declared four areas in West Bengal as red-zone hotspots with one zone as ultra sensitive, the West Bengal government has ordered strict enforcement of lockdown and if necessary armed policemen will be used to keep people indoors.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee said: “Whoever breaks the lockdown will have to face legal action.” It may be mentioned that the chief minister has been insisting the state would have face lockdown with a humane face and instructed the police not to indulge in excesses .
“We can land in great danger if lockdown is not maintained. FIRs will be lodged if anybody is seen violating the protocol”,Banerjee added.
Banerjee already transferred three IAS and one IPS officer over handling of the COVID19 situation and failed to enforce lockdown properly.
Three IAS officers , Principal secretary of Food and Food Supples department Manoj Agarwal, Darjeeling DM Deepap Priya P , DM of West Midnapore Mr Shashank Sethi and Ajeet Singh Yadav, Superintendent of Police Murshidabad. While Agarwal has been put on compulsory waiting , Darjeeling DM has been posted as OSD Personnel Administrative Reforms(PAR) and Sethi has been appointed as OSD to chief secretary . Yadav has been posted as SP Counter Insurgency Force in Durgapur . K Sabari Raj Kumar was appointed as the SP Murshidabad.
Sources in the state government said that the DM’s who who were transferred have failed to enforce strict lockdown protocols in their area which resulted in congestion in various market places in districts. In various places hundreds of daily wage earners blocked the street protesting against lack of food.
Apprehending community transmission, Banerjee urged people to avoid crowding in the markets and hinted at stricter enforcement of law and lodging of FIR if anybody violates the law.
Banerjee said that the red-zone hotspots include, Howrah, Kolkata, East Midnapore and North 24 Parganas.
After the administrative meeting, Banerjee said: “If lockdown is not strictly enforced in this designated red zones, armed police should be put into force. Howrah has been designated as ultra-sensitive red zone and I am urging the district magistrate to take immediate action so that it can change to orange zone within 14 days and then to green zone. Midnapore was once been designated as a red zone , but district administration worked tirelessly and they have now been transformed into orange zone .
She said that till now there was no sign of positive cases in Alipurduar, Cooch-Behar, Uttar Dinajpur, Malda, Birbhum, Bankura,Purulia,East Burdwan, Jhargram, but district authorities need to be more alert , as Alipurduar, Coochbehar are in the within the bordering districts.
According to the state government figures, at present positive cases were reported in Jalpaiguri, Hooghly, Midnapore East and Kolkata.
Banerjee alerted the district administration of the bordering districts on infiltration through borders with Bangladesh.
Miss Banerjee again took a dig at the Governor’s tweet j which he said that the state should request Central paramilitary forces.
“Why do we need Central forces, when the state government is doing so well?” Banerjee added.
Ration supply fiasco in the state
A day after Mamata Banerjee, put the food secretary Manoj Verma on compulsory waiting after it was found that some people were taking taking advantage of the ration supply and distributing food items to poor people, chief minister herself went on a surprise visit to three ration shops in the Bhowanipore area and urged the ration shop owners to engage 100-day workers to pack five kilogram rice, pulses so that people do not have to stand in long queues.
At an administrative meeting, chief secretary Rajiva Sinha suggested that of ration food items could be parceled and will be dispatched to people who need it without them having to wait in queues for long hours.