BJP's Malviya slams 'health minister' Mamata for 'directly' declaring red zones as green

BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya on Monday slammed the CM Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government after Kolkata Municipal Corporation "directly" declared two red zones as green. Responding to BJP Bengal's tweet where the party alleged that this was an "act of appeasement" by Mamata Banerjee Govt, as the order was "exclusive for Rajabazar and Belgachia," Malviya said that there are stipulated guidelines and rigorous evaluations which go into deciding whether a zone is Green or Red.

'Save Bengal before it is late'

He added, "But under Health Minister Mamata Banerjee, it is political expediency and appeasement that decides and everything is naturally ‘Green’! Save Bengal before its too late" Mamata Banerjee does hold the health portfolio.

With the significant drop in the numbers of containment zones in Kolkata from 339 to 286, Firhad Hakim, the chairperson of KMC's Board of Administrators had on Saturday informed that the densely populated slums of Rajabazar and Belgachia have turned green.

Mamata reaches out to migrant workers

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday reached out to migrant workers returning to the state during the coronavirus-triggered lockdown and announced that her government will bear the entire cost of their journey by special trains. She also pledged a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each for the next of kin of three people from the state who were among the 24 killed in a road accident in Uttar Pradesh.

The opposition BJP and CPI(M) dubbed the announcement as the TMC government's "crisis management" with an eye on the next year's state polls as it had failed to act on time. The issue of bringing back migrant labourers and stranded people to West Bengal had snowballed into a political one with the BJP and the Centre rapping the state for not taking adequate measures to ferry them home.

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The TMC in its turn had blamed the Centre's "botched up lockdown" and "arrogant" approach for the suffering of lakhs of migrant workers across the country.

Seven people succumbed to COVID-19 in West Bengal taking the total number of deaths directly due to the disease to 160, state home secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said on Saturday. At least 115 new cases of coronavirus were reported during the same period taking the total number of confirmed cases to 2,576, he said, adding that there are at the moment 1,452 active cases in the state. 

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(With inputs from agencies)