Inan effort to control the raging pandemic in the state, the West Bengalgovernment announced to suspend movement of all local trains till furthernotice and made Covid negative report mandatory for the passengers comingeither by flight or by trains from other states from May 7 midnight. The stategovernment also made a series of announcements to control the movement ofpeople.
Hoursafter taking the responsibility of the state for the third time in a row, chiefminister Mamata Banerjee said, "All local trains to be suspended fromtomorrow till further notice and only 50 per cent of the state transport willply on roads following the increase of Covid cases in the state. Lots of outsidershad come to state in the last three months and now we will have to controlit".
"Noflights will be allowed to enter three airports of the state - Dum Dum,Bagdogra and Andal unless all the passengers have their RT-PCR (Covid test)report done 72 hours before boarding the flight. Not only that, all passengerscoming by trains or any other means from other states will have to producetheir RT-PCR report," she said.
"Anypassenger coming by flight without the report will have to stay in quarantinefor 14 days and the airport authorities will have to make an arrangement forthat," the chief minister added.
Thechief minister also imposed total ban on shopping malls, cinema halls, gyms,swimming pools, bars, restaurants and hotels while exempting emergency serviceslike Health, Fire Services, Electricity and Telecom from any kind ofrestrictions.
Thechief minister said that local shops, market places and stand-alone shops canopen from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. in the morning and 5 p.m. to 7 pm in the evening. Onlyjewellery shops and banks will remain open from 12 noon to 3 p.m. and from 10a.m. to 2 p.m. respectively.
"Itis requested that people should wear masks, else the government will takestrict action against them," the chief minister said. Apart from this thestate government has also put a ban on any kind of gathering related tosocio-cultural and academic entertainment programs.
"Only50 people will be allowed for religious and cultural gatherings like marriageor something like that but in that case prior permission needs to be taken fromthe local authorities. The state has not only reduced the presence of theiremployees in the office by 50 per cent but also asked the private sector toreduce the number of employees in the office," she said.
Prioritisingthe vaccination of transport workers, journalists and hawkers because they areexposed to the people the most, the chief minister said, "We want toprioritise the people who are waiting for the second dose. We have given 1.5core vaccines so far and asked for another 3 crore but there has been noresponse from the central government".