Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has asked for Rs 61,000 crore from the Centre to ward off the crisis arising out of the corona endemic. This amount includes the financial dues that the "Centre owes" to the State.
A day before her video meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi the Chief Minister has written a letter to the former seeking a financial package of Rs 25,000 crore to meet the expenses for providing free ration to the people of the State along with other public welfare schemes planned amid massive shortfall in the State’s revenue during post corona lockdown.
Apart from this the Chief Minister has also asked the Centre to clear the past dues amounting to about Rs 36,000 crore, senior officials said. The Chief Minister had earlier committed free ration to the 9 crore strong population of the State that started on Wednesday amid large-scale crowding of market places throughout the districts.
In the letter the Chief Minister wrote that her State’s finances “like many other States” were in a “dire situation with practically no revenue flows after the closure of all business.”
The letter further read that regardless of the grim situation on account of the lockdown the State has “somehow been able to pay the salaries, wages and pensions of Government employees this month though some major states of the country could not do that on full. And even with the massive debt trap left behind by the previous Government we were able to service the debt so far but future remains uncertain.”
Asking the Centre to sanction a special grant of Rs 25,000 crore Banerjee wrote that her Government “required to meet our commitments towards girl child, students, farmers, unorganized workers, weaker sections, minorities, SC, ST and OBCs. We are also having to honour our commitments of providing free ration to almost 9 crore people who need this so crucially to survive in this perilous time.”
Besides she reminded that the Centre was “yet to pay Rs 36,000 crore” due to the State.
The timing of the letter is crucial as it was written a day ahead of the video meeting the Prime Minister was likely to hold with the Chief Ministers on Thursday.
Banerjee who has earned appreciations for aptly managing the corona crisis till now later appealed to the people not to come out of their houses and throng places. “The coming two weeks are very crucial for us and it is a time we all should cooperate with each other to ward fight the disease by remaining indoors…. Please do not come out of your houses and crowd the streets… you will get time for gossiping in future but now it is time to handle the crisis,” she said.
The Chief Minister’s appeal came at a time when thousands of people were seen thronging the rural markets and ration shops --- throwing all cautions to the wind --- to procure 5 kgs of free rice promised by the Government. Large gatherings were seen at Coochbehar, North and South 24 Parganas, Burdwan and elsewhere Food and Civil Societies Minister JP Mullick said appealing to the people to maintain social distancing.
Meanwhile, the death rate compared to the number of Corona infections remained a cause of concern for the doctors even as Bengal recorded its 6th death late on Tuesday night.
While a 57-year-old man from Howrah district died on Tuesday night, another person of the same age succumbed at a private hospital at Belghoria in the northern suburbs of Kolkata. Neither of the victims had a travel history, Health Department officials said adding they were trying to gather further information.
The Chief Minister later said that the man died of kidney ailments. The doctors too said he had been suffering from diabetes for the past 20 years and had been a renal patient adding however that he tested positive for the coronavirus. Family members of both the deceased have been placed under quarantine, the official said.
More patients from Sheoraphuli in Hooghly district Egra in East Midnapore tested positive taking the total number of such cases in the state to 37, sources said on Wednesday.
Tension ran high at Dhapa burning ground in eastern parts of Kolkata where hundreds of locals gathered to protest the burning the corpse of one of the corona victims, sources said adding they were afraid that the burning of the victim might spread infection in that area. The people were still protesting when reports last came in.