Mamata Banerjee has appealed to the Centre to “immediately stop all the international flights.” The Bengal Chief Minister who interactedwith Prime Minister Narendra Modi through video-conferencing later told the media on Friday that she had “told the Prime Minister to stop all the international flights” to Bengal.
“The coronavirus is coming from outside the country. Why should the people of India suffer for the disease that is coming from outside?” the Chief Minister said adding Maharashtra and Telengana too had made similar requests to the Central Government.
The Centre had on Thursday announced a ban on all international flights to the country for a week beginning March 22.
Banerjee’s appeal came within hours of a second youth was found to be infected by coronavirus. The 22-year-old who had returned from London on March 13 and had been in home-isolation was reported positive after he visited the hospital with flu-like condition on March 17, sources said, adding all the 11 members of the jointly family he lives in have been quarantined in a Government facility.
A third person a plastic surgeon who had visited Dubai had also beenquarantined with suspected corona infection. His pathological samples have been sent for tests.
Alleging that New Delhi was not cooperative enough regarding the State Government’s requisitions for corona preparedness the Chief Minister said, “I reported him about how our demands for necessary kits have thus far been ignored.” On how the Prime Minister responded to her allegations she said “he said that he was taking note of it but did not give any assurance… I said that all the equipment we are manufacturing here in Bengal through MSMEs but some other things like permission for setting up labs that only the Centre can give has to come from there.”
Banerjee also said she had placed demands for food grains during the coming months of crisis. The Chief Minister announced that the Government will provide 5 kgs of ration free to the people till the month of September. “Either we will supply it home-to-home or we will ask the guardians to come and collect it from the ration shops which have been asked to remain open at least five-and-a-half days a week.”
The Chief Minister also said she had requested the Prime Minister to come out a plan for the unorganised sector that is likely to suffer from loss of jobs in case of bigger eventualities in the coming weeks. She is also said to have requested the prime minister for a plan for the unorganised sector which is expected to be worst-hit due to a considerable drop in economic activities as part of containment efforts.
“I have requested the PM to come up with a plan for the unorganised sector, suffering due to COVID-19 pandemic,” she said, adding her Government was taking all the precautionary steps to handle the pandemic.
“We have a near-seven star facility at Rajarhat New Town for those who will have to be quarantined. This facility can accommodate about a thousand people,” she said adding all the districts have been asked to create such isolation centres.
As on Friday she said about 5.63 lakh people had been screened in the State. Out of them 57 people have been quarantined and 18,700 people have been kept in home isolation.