Amid eyebrows raising in the medical fraternity and the opposition circles the Bengal Government has decided to safeguard “Jaan” and operationalise “Jahan” even as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday declared that the State will be fully functional from the first week of June with the opening of both religious places and public offices.
“While temples, mosques, churches and gurudwaras will open from June 1, the public and private sector will become fully functional from June 8,” she said adding not more than 10 persons will be allowed entry in religious places.
Public and private sector offices too will begin work with full staff strength, she said allowing public transport to ferry passengers to their full capacity. Buses which were allowed to carry only 20 people earlier will now be able to ferry passengers to its full sitting strength, she said reminding, “no standing person will be allowed.”
Tea gardens and jute mills too will start functioning with full capacity from June 8, she said. When asked if sudden opening of the system will neutralize the good effects of the 68-day lockdown a fuming Chief Minister said if the Railways could send in “Corona Expresses” (read trains bringing infected migrant workers) packed with people then where was there a harm in opening the State. “We have reports that the Railways is sending trains, heaving with migrant workers. In one seat, three-four persons are travelling for 48 hours, 72 hours. So I thought then what is the harm in opening up religious places. From June 1, religious sites and places can open up in Bengal.”
She however said that “no mass congregation or no big festival would be allowed to be organized” in the State till further orders.
“Already Bengal has received 5-6 lakh migrant workers many of who already have come via road. And the Railways have sent another 75 thousand of them in trains … many of these people are carrying corona infection… so much so that the people have started running away when a train is entering the Howrah station saying ‘look Corona Express is coming,’” she said.
She said that but for the irresponsible attitude of the Railways which too have a “social responsibility towards the citizens of the country” Bengal Government had been successfully controlled the proliferation of the virus.
“We were successful in controlling the spread of corona virus in the last two months, but now it is increasing as a lot of people are coming from outside. The Railways is sending migrants in crowded compartments. In the name of Shramik Special trains they are running 'corona express' trains,” she said.
The decision to open up the State came amid rising number of cases and a lot of frown both from the medical and political fraternity.
Senior doctors wondered whether social distancing norms could be followed in case of a full relaxation of lockdown norms and said “the entire good effects of the lockdown would be compromised if we open up now.”
Another senior virologist predicted “a massive increase in the number of cases in the coming weeks and Bengal will find it difficult to burry its dead people if the decision is not changed right away.” CPI(M)’s Md Sal;im said, “it seems Mamata Banjeree is competing with the Modi Government in haphazard implementation of plans. While on one hand the sudden imposition of the lockdown brought great miseries to the poor people of the country now its sudden lifting will finish the advantages of the lockdown.”
He also asked “how the people will be transported to their offices and back at a time when the local trains are closed. And if the local trains are started where is a guarantee of social distancing?”
State BJP president Dilip Ghosh attacked Banerjee for taking knee-jerk decisions even as he asked “for reasons did we implement the lockdown for the past two months. Was it because we will sacrifice its good effects? Will the Chief Minister be able to control the rising cases if they start to multiply in the coming weeks? “Who will take the responsibility of the families that will suffer now?”
