Deciding to look right through the Centre’s directive depriving the States the power to impose lockdown post August, the Bengal Government has decided to continue with its pre-announced lockdown schedules in the month of September.
A senior Home Ministry official on Monday said that “there is no change in the lockdown schedules and the State will go ahead with it in the month of September.”
Before the Centre’s announcement taking back the power of declaring lockdowns from the State Governments during Unlock 4, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had declared that the State will have lockdowns — to break the corona chain — on September 7, 11 and 12.
“The Government is sticking to the decision and everything will be closed as decided,” the official said adding the Metro Railways which was scheduled to start running from September 7 will now run from September 8.
The Chief Public Relation Officer of the Kolkata Metro Railways Indrani Banerjee, however, said that “all decisions will be taken after we receive guidelines from the Union Home Ministry.”
The State Government, however, have decided to help facilitate transportation of students appearing for the JEE/NEET examinations on the specific dates in September. “The respective department have been directed to run maximum possible buses and other transports including autos and taxis to ferry the students,” a Tranport Department official said.