West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that there is lack of clarity in the Centre\u2019s imposition of restrictions and the way some relaxations were being offered.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the one hand, they are saying shops can be kept open, and on the other hand, they are saying impose strict lockdown. If we keep shops open, we can\u2019t ask people to not go there,\u201d she said. Banerjee said that the chief secretary had been asked to seek clarification on this from the cabinet secretary.<\/p>\n
Banerjee attended a meeting over videoconference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in the day. She said that the Centre should consult states before issuing circulars on various matters. She alleged that while the Centre is asking for a stricter implementation of lockdown, it is allowing the shops to open which is causing crowding in public places.<\/p>\n
She added that the Centre should deposit Rs.10,000 in the bank accounts of unorganised sector workers as people were suffering due to lack of work. She also suggested the Centre to increase the number of work days to 150 for those employed under its 100-days work scheme. The Centre should make plans for the poor, she said. Banerjee alleged that the Centre is wasting funds behind expensive projects, but is not helping the states with funds required to fight COVID-19.<\/p>\n
The state has made reforms to save money and utilise funds for the poor, but the state\u2019s earnings have been badly affected due to the lockdown restrictions, she said. The Centre has made a salary cut for MPs, cut dearness allowance increase for Central government employees among other things. But the state has not taken similar measures, she said. \u201cHow are we going to get funds to fight the pandemic?\u201d Banerjee asked, making clear her displeasure with the Centre\u2019s lack of financial support in the face of the crisis.<\/p>\n
She said Central government teams had been sent to Bengal and they were holding meetings with top officials \u2013 like the chief secretary, home secretary, health secretary, district magistrates and police superintendents. \u201cWill these officials work to fight the pandemic or will they appear for meetings with Central team officials?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Bengal government has allowed from now home delivery of non-essential goods. Delivery of essential goods was allowed earlier as well. Relaxations will be allowed in those areas which haven’t reported any COVID-19 cases in past 21 days. The relaxations may be allowed or withdrawn depending on the COVID-19 situation in a place.<\/p>\n
A cabinet committee was announced by Banerjee today for COVID-19 management. It will fight the COVID-19 situation in Bengal while rest of the administration will handle other matters of governance in the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mamata Banerjee expressed her displeasure at some Central government decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":279,"featured_media":8990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[375,246,346,371,49,92],"tmauthors":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9357","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-bengal","8":"tag-centre-state-relations","9":"tag-coronavirus-in-india","10":"tag-coronavirus-in-kolkata","11":"tag-lockdown-in-india","12":"tag-mamata-banerjee","13":"tag-narendra-modi"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/279"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9357"},{"taxonomy":"tmauthors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tmauthors?post=9357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}