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‘Do you want Bengal to turn into Maharashtra?’

A fuming Mamata questions Modi over unplanned entry of Shramik trains

‘Do you want Bengal to turn into Maharashtra?’

West Bengal Chief Minster Mamata Banerjee. (Photo: IANS)

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention over the rise in Corona cases in view of lakhs of migrant workers coming to the state and accused the Railways for sending Shramikspecial trains from Maharashtra without consulting Bengal.

The state recorded 183 new Corona cases in the last 24 hours taking the case count to 4,192.

“We had come up with a plan by which everyone would have come back in a few days in a phased manner. But suddenly we heard that additional 36 trains are being sent from Maharashtra. We spoke to Maharashtra government and learnt that they, too, had no knowledge about it and were informed about the trains at night,” said Banerjee at a video conference with district magistrates to review Amphan relief and restoration work.

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Banerjee said that it would have been better had Railways consulted the state government before sending the trains.

“I don’t know why the Railways did this. If thousands of corona affected people enter the state, who will take responsibility? Do you want West Bengal to turn into Maharashtra, Delhi or Gujarat (in terms of Coronavirus case count)?” she questioned adding that Centre was creating trouble for Bengal in order to disturb her politically. Alleging that “mismanagement and poor planning” were reasons behind the rise in Corona cases, Banerjee further complained that though state government was bearing the travel expenses, social distancing norms were not being followed while ferrying the workers in trains as people were coming in crowded manner.

“I would request the Prime Minister to help us and seriously see to it that Corona cases do not rise. We had almost controlled the corona situation here but if daily so many migrant workers come here and if 25 per cent of them are positive then it’s not good for us,” she said adding that the state government does not have the machinery to quarantine so many people.

She said that she had once asked Union Home minister Amit Shah to take control of the current situation in Bengal if they think that the state is unable to handle it but Shah told her that Centre cannot disturb an elected state government.

Workers coming from the five corona hotspot states namely Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu would undergo 14-day institutional quarantining.

Family members can send food for their relatives to the schools that would function as institutional quarantine centres while the government would provide two meals (rice dal and vegetables) per day for the very poor workers, said Banerjee.

Workers coming from states other than these five would be kept in home quarantine for 14 days. State government has set up task forces at block levels in all the districts comprising BDO, IC, block level health official, panchayat or zilla parishad member and MLA to monitor the migrant workers. Five to six lakh migrant workers have already reached the state, she said.

Eleven trains would reach the state tonight and another 17 would arrive tomorrow morning, she said adding that all the green zones are are turning into orange and red zones.

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