West Bengal's new Covid worry: 200 extra 'unplanned' trains

Kolkata: The Bengal government on Thursday conveyed to the Centre its opposition to the railway ministry’s “unplanned” decision to run 200 additional intra- and inter-state trains from June 1.

State chief secretary Rajiva Sinha’s video-conference with union cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba came on a day the state saw a record spike in the number of new infections (344) and a day after Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee made public her opposition to the influx of returning migrants.

Thursday’s video-conference had as participants all state chief secretaries and civic heads of 13 cities (including Kolkata and Howrah) that contributed 70% of the country’s Covid-positive cases till Wednesday.

The state health department’s data sheet released on Thursday showed Kolkata (87), Howrah (55) and North 24 Parganas (49) contributing to the spike; Kolkata Police personnel contributed 28 of the new cases over the last 48 hours.

Several districts like North Dinajpur and Birbhum — green till a few days ago — have gradually moved into the red, coinciding with the return of migrants working in other states. Experts have also expressed their concern over Cyclone Amphan’s impact on social-distancing norms. Bengal registered six Covid-19 deaths in the the last 24 hours (three from Kolkata), taking the total deaths because of Covid-19 to 223. Seventy-two more have died of co-morbid factors.

State chief secretary Sinha focused on the “avoidable” risk emanating out of the union railway ministry’s decision to run 200 additional inter- and intra-state trains from next Monday. These are over and above the Shramik Specials scheduled to travel to Kolkata and Howrah. CM Banerjee on Wednesday protested against the “unplanned” influx of migrant workers from high-incidence states and demanded that railways stop sending trains over and above the “mutually agreed” plan to Bengal especially when it was fighting a two-pronged battle against both the virus and Cyclone Amphan’s after-effects.

Union cabinet secretary Gauba, during the video-conference, let civic agencies decide how to demarcate containment zones (residential colonies or municipal wards or police-station areas or entire towns) on the basis of inputs from the ground. The centre has already issued guidelines on Covid-19 management in urban settlements.

The state government is already doing a dynamic mapping of containment zones with inputs from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and other civic bodies. The containment zones have been divided into three categories: Zone A (“Affected Zone”), Zone B (“Buffer Zone”) and Zone C (“Clean Zone”). The state has enforced a strict lockdown in Zone A, with some relaxations in Zone B and more relaxations in Zone C. Lifting of lockdown is allowed in non-containment zones.

Bengal has also allowed shops, offices and industries to open with reduced staff in non-containment zones and has restored a skeletal public transport system to take people to work.