Conceding that there was indeed community transmission taking place in parts of Bengal the State Government on Monday decided to return to the lockdown mode.
“Consequent to the situation of community transmission in certain areas and in a bid to break the chain the State Government has decided to go for a complete lockdown for two days in a week, Home Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay said adding the “two-day lockdown will be in addition to the broad-based lockdown in containment zones.”
For the current week the lockdown will be enforced on Thursday and Saturday, he said. The Government will periodically assess the situation and decide on the future course of action he said.
“As of now next meeting will be held on July 29 when the situation will be reassessed. After that such periodical assessment will continue to take place throughout the month of August,” he maintained hinting at a policy of “intermittent lockdown”being taken by the State Government.
TheGovernment issued an integrated helpline numbers--1800313444222, 033 23412600; for telemedicine--033 23576001; and 033 40902929 for ambulance.
“For this the lockdown will be on Thursday and Saturday but for the coming weeks the days of lockdown may change … though lockdown in Wednesdays could be a permanent affair,” he said.
The decision comes a day after State Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha assured that the Government was in full control of the situation “moving at a higher speed than the corona virus,” and about a months after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked the people to learn to live with corona instead of fearing it. “We have to learn to live with corona like the side pillow,” she said.
Reacting rather sharply to the Government’s “lax handling of the situation that brought us to this situation,” Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Chwodhury said “it had always seemed that this Government is going nowhere with its policy decisions on corona. Here the Chief Minister wants the people to take corona as a side pillow there the Chief Secretary says everything the Government is running at a higher speed than corona…
“But the next day the Home Secretary talks of community transmission and limited lockdown… One wonders what is happening. What is this adhocism about? … Today we are in this situation because of the unplanned and wayward attitude of this government.”
CPI(M) central committee member and MLA Sujan Chakrabarty said “this the result of government hiding the real situation from the people.
Where is the Chief Minister? Why a Home Secretary has to announce such major decisions? Why the Government is so soft on people breaking corona protocols? Why no action is being taken on people not maintaining social distancing and not wearing masks?”
The Trinamool leadership however wondered why the opposition parties were not raising fingers at the Centre which was responsible for the current situation in Bengal. TMC MP and IMA State president Dr Shantanu Sen said “it is the irresponsible decision of the Centre to suddenly declare the lockdown and then after two months send back infected migrant workers who had by that time contracted the disease in States like Maharashtra, Gujarat and other States… And now they are blaming the State Government which had initially handled the situationin an appreciable manner.”