Mamata Banerjee demands vaccination of govt staff at COVID frontlines; writes to PM Modi

After lashing out about being a mute spectator in PM Modi's meeting with District officials on Thursday, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee wrote a letter urging the Centre to arrange COVID vaccines for Central & state govt employees without delay as they belonged to 'priority sector'. Writing to PM Modi, CM Mamata Banerjee claimed that the West Bengal govt had taken all the steps to vaccinate a large section of frontline workers and employees who were engaged in electoral activities but said that over 20 lakh doses were still required to inoculate all employees. The TMC supremo urged Centre to make available the required vaccine doses to the state govt in order to vaccinate its employees without delay.

WB CM Mamata Banerjee wants vaccines for state govt employees

Further, CM Mamata Banerjee Central govt employees working in Railways, Ports, Banks, Defence, Insurance, post & Telegraph, Coal were facing problems in getting vaccinated on a priority basis. She claimed that these employees were forced to face people, to mingle with the public to discharge their duties. Taking a jibe at the Centre alleging that it had no room to accommodate their needs, CM Mamata Banerjee said that it was important for these employees to get vaccinated without delay and irrespective of their age. 

Bengal's COVID-19 situation

West Bengal's COVID-19 death toll rose to 13,733 after 157 more people succumbed to the disease on Wednesday, the state health department said in a bulletin. Altogether 19,006 fresh cases of infection also took the tally 11,90,867. In the last 24 hours, 19,151 recoveries have been reported improving the discharge rate to 87.81 per cent. The number of active cases was reduced to 1,31,491 from Tuesday's 1,31,793.

CM Mamata lashes out against PM Modi

In an explosive charge on Thursday, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee claimed that she was "insulted" by not being allowed to speak at the meeting with PM Modi. She was addressing a press briefing after participating in a meeting chaired by the PM pertaining to COVID-19 management. Officials from the Health Ministry and 54 districts including North and South 24 Parganas, Kolkata, Paschim Bardhaman, Birbhum, Nadia, Howrah, Hoogly and East Midnapore also attended the virtual meeting. The other attendees were CMs of 10 states- Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.

Contending that only UP CM Yogi Adityanath got a chance to express his views, Banerjee called upon other Chief Ministers to lodge a protest. Alleging that the Centre is not supplying an adequate amount of oxygen to the state, she also flagged the shortage of Remdesivir in the market. Slamming the PM for purported shying away from two-way communication, the TMC supremo claimed that the states were not asked anything about COVID-19 vaccines, black fungus and other coronavirus-related issues. Reiterating the contention that COVID-19 spread in WB owing to the eight-phase Assembly polls, she also questioned the PM on whether he had dispatched a Central team to UP where dead bodies have been seen floating in rivers.