Bengal Government officials have dismissed the Monday’s skirmish on the outskirts of Asansol leaving several policemen injured as a “minor affair that has been brought under control.”
Locals protesting the setting up of a quarantine centre in a school hostel at Churulia in industrial district of Burdwan West clashed with the police leaving several men in khaki injured, local sources said adding a massive reinforcement from Jamuria police station in Asansol had to be rushed in to bring the situation under control.
The police even had to fire tear-gas shells and resort to baton-charge to bring the crowd under control. The incident left at least 10 cops injured. The policemen have been hospitalized.
"It was a minor skirmish and has been brought under control," a senior police officer said adding.
Similar clashes had earlier occurred at Parui in Birbhum district where two groups clashed with bombs and guns over setting up of a quarantine centre leaving one person dead early this month.
The incident takes place close on the heels of Union Home Ministry dashing off three reminders to the Bengal Government asking it to enforce lock-down more seriously and efficiently.
Elsewhere in Kolkata senior Trinamool Congress leaders have chosen to discount” Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar’s lockdown jibes at the Mamata Banerjee Government “advising him to stand by the Government and inspire the people instead of taking political potshots.”
The Governor had in reference to the Union Government’s letters to the State Government asking it to properly enforce the lockdown had said that the State was not keeping him in the loop “about measures taken by it in fighting the corona outbreak.
He said that the Chief Minister should “end the lockdown with Raj Bhavan,” adding “officials be held accountable for lapses” in failing to enforce social distancing and allow religious congregations as referred to by the Centre. He also asked the state government to shun politics and take MHA warnings seriously.
Referring to the Governor’s tweet a senior minister in the State Government said “let us discount what he says because we are engaged in dealing with a serious thing like corona.”
Meanwhile, the Medicine Department of the age-old Calcutta Medical College was shut down on Tuesday following reports corona infections.
It was the second such department after the Gynaecology unit having to be shut on Monday following similar reports, sources said. Elsewhere another doctor at Charnock Hospital tested corona positive and had been sent for treatment, sources said. The said hospital had already been sealed on Monday.