West Bengal Asks Centre Not to Schedule Flights From 6 Hotspot States, Wants Resumption of Kolkata Metro Services For Essential Workers

Kolkata, June 30: West Bengal government on Tuesday asked the Centre to not schedule any flight to the state from six COVID-19 hotspot states for two weeks starting from July 6 to contain the spread of coronavirus. Rajiva Sinha, West Bengal Chief Secretary in a letter to the Ministry of Central Aviation, said, “Kindly not to schedule any flight to West Bengal from Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Chennai, Indore, Ahmedabad, Surat for two weeks starting July 6, 2020.”

Sinha in another letter to the Centre, demanding permission from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for relaxing norms for Kolkata to run a bare minimum number of Metro trains. The West Bengal Chief Secretary wrote this letter to Ajay Bhalla, Home Secretary, In the letter, Sinha wrote, “Although the load of daily passengers is much less during the current crisis since there is ni Metro running in the city the whole load is coming on bus transport.” West Bengal Govt Announces Relaxations in Night Curfew; Metro Services May Resume From July 1 With Only 100% Seat Occupancy Policy.

Letter by Rajiv Sinha Asking Centre to Cancel Flights to West Bengal:

Sinha added that the worst sufferers were those who provide essential services. The state government also had a meeting with local metro authorities regarding the resumption of metro services. The State chief secretory said that resumption of metro services for essential service providers would help in maintain social distancing norms in the city more efficiently.

Last week, state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had also said that her government discussing with Metro authorities about resuming the Metro services from July 1 allowing passengers only up to the seating capacity. On June 24, the state government announced the extension of the lockdown in the state till July 31 to contain the spread of COVID-19. The ongoing lockdown in West Bengal was to end on June 30. Schools and other educational institutes will remain shut during the lockdown. Coronavirus cases in West Bengal reached 17,907 on Tuesday.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 30, 2020 06:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).