The dreaded coronavirus claimed yet another political victim when veteran Marxist leader, former Rajya Sabha Member and an important member in Jyoti Basu Cabinet Shyamal Chakrabarty died on Thursday. He was 77 and is survived by a daughter.
He had tested positive for the virus and, admitted to a private hospital on July 31, sources said, adding he was suffering from comorbidities like renal conditions.
He was one of the five “Young Turks” of the Left movement in the 1970s, including Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Biman Bose, Anil Biswas and Subhas Chakrbarty all of whom were close friends and rose to prominence as mass leaders.
A senior Trade Union leader who started his political career in the early 1960s from students’ movement, Chakrabarty later went on to become CPI(M)’s central committee member known for integrity, dedication and gentleness, said Congress Lok Sabha leader Adhir Chowdhury.
The mortal remains of Chakrabarty who had like Jyoti Basu and other senior Marxist leaders had donated his body for medical research will however be handed over to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation for funeral in accordance with corona protocols, both his daughter Ushashie Chakrabarty and CPI(M) State secretary Suryakanto Mishra said.
“CPI(M) expresses its deep sadness at the demise of comrade Shyamal Chakrabarty a veteran trade union leader, a former minister and a central committee member,” a party release said.
Condoling his death Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said “saddened at the passing away of … Shyamal Chakrabarty. My condolences to his family friends and supporters.”
Meanwhile the Bengal Government on Thursday claimed that about 87.6 percent of the total corona deaths in the State were caused due to comorbidity. Briefing the media the Chief Minister said there were “little more than 50,000 active cases” in the State adding “some 87.6 percent of fatalities were caused due to comorbid conditions.”
This comorbidity element we had stated earlier and tried to factor in but everyone opposed then.” Fatality rate in the State is 2.2 percent, she said.
She also informed that the State was witnessing a healthy discharge rate of about 70 percent “which is a good sign,” adding the State was doing its best to contain the corona cases “despite the fact that we have no earning and only burning (of cash) as we have not yet received any grant for corona and neither we have received our share of the GST.” To boost the medical infrastructure the Chief Minister said that the State Government was recruiting 500 additional house staff in the hospitals.
Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha declared that the State had till date tested 10 lakh cases which was the reason why the number of cases were going up adding “we are testing more than 25,000 cases per day.” He also said that the State had a total number of 11,560 beds and 23,500 safe homes for quarantining the corona patients with milder symptoms.
Out of total hospitalised patients 1,144 were critical and 1,043 had moderate ailments he said adding 1,946 patients had mild symptoms. The Government also came out with some helplines that included and related to telemedicine, psychiatric help and other corona related complaints.
Addressing the issues raised by the private transporters who had been asking for increase in bus fares the Government came out with sops waiving taxes for the months between April and September, Home Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay said, adding the yearly permit fee would also be waived apart from the additional penalty for the delay in payment of taxes.