Mamata Banerjee Cracks The Whip, Wants Armed Police At Marketplaces To Stop Crowding

Mamata Banerjee said armed police should be deployed at crowded marketplaces in parts of the state.(FILE)

Days after insisting on a lockdown with a human face, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee laid down the law today, saying armed police should be deployed at crowded marketplaces in parts of the state to ensure social distancing norms are being followed.

"Howrah is very sensitive and I want the administration to bring it down from a red zone to an orange zone within 14 days," Mamta Banerjee told district authorities in a video conference with superintendents of police and district magistrates from across the state.

Directly addressing the commissioner of Kolkata Police, Anuj Sharma, the chief minister said, "You can deploy armed police, too, to monitor the markets to ensure they are not crowded."

Ms Banerjee, describing North 24 Parganas as another troubling hotspot, told authorities, "This is the district where you have a lot of dengue cases. Now, COVID-19. I don't know how you are going to do it but you have to control the situation," she said.

Obliquely referring to a tweet by governor Jagdeep Dhankhar in which he had suggested that paramilitary forces may be requisitioned to ensure, Ms Banerjee said "The police is doing a good job? Why should we need the paramilitary. What will they do?"

The Chief Minister also cracked the whip on the officials responsible for managing the districts from where instances of violations of lockdown norms were reported. Several officers have been transferred in view of the alleged lapses.

The district magistrate of Burdwan West was replaced for setting up a quarantine centre at a crowded area in rural Churulia, leading to a clash between angry villagers and the police last week. A police officer ended up with a broken leg and the police force had to fire teargas to control the situation.

Murshidabad's superintendent of police has also been moved out after a thousand villagers blocked a road for 5 hours to protest non delivery of food grains at ration shops.

The secretary for civil supplies has also been replaced as the chief minister was said to be unhappy about the number of complaints received about erratic ration supplies.

Last week, the Ministry of Home Affairs wrote to the top bureaucracy in West Bengal, criticizing the violation and dilution of the lockdown.

The centre has also identified four districts as hotspots in the state, including Kolkata, Howrah, North 24 Parganas and East Midnapore.

Eight districts have been placed in the orange zone as they reported sporadic cases of covid-19.

In a bid to avoid an increase in the spread of cases, the Mamata Banerjee government has asked even the districts with no coronavirus cases to not be complacent.

The chief secretary asked for special focus on Murshidabad and Malda districts as they reported highest cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI).