Will receive stranded people: Bengal
■ ‘West Bengal govt keen to welcome back our people’
The Mamata Banerjee government on Friday shared its two recent communications with the Centre in public as proof of its arrangements for the overseas repatriation of the stranded people from West Bengal by air and their quarantine for Covid-19 pandemic following their arrival.
Its revelation came a day after the MEA’s assurance of arranging flights to Kolkata subject to the state government’s confirmation to “receive” the air passengers and “quarantine” them in its polite rebuttal of state education minister Partha Chatterjee’s allegations of no arrangements of flights by the Centre.
The state home department tweeted, “GOWB keen to welcome back our people stranded in different countries and has long back communicated its agreement as well as quarantine arrangements details etc to GOI for special international inbound journeys. Letters attached. Bengal awaits flights.” It also posted two letters with a list quarantine centres.
In one of them, on May 8, state chief secretary Rajiva Sinha told union home secretary Ajay Bhalla and foreign secretary
Harsh Vardhan Shringla, “It is said that the Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) and the guidelines may kindly be maintained strictly to avoid any chance of speed of Covid-19, as initial spread of infection has been incidentally through the foreign returnees only. The required preparations for institutional quarantine facilities for the foreign returnees to West Bengal have been put in place. It is, however, requested that the details of the passengers reaching Kolkata may kindly be intimated in advance to make other necessary arrangements.”
On May 11, Mr Sinha provided the arrival destination: the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, contact details of the state government’s nodal officer: Rajesh Pandey and a list of 12 hotels as ‘Pay & Use Quarantine Centres’ and three government quarantine centres in another letter.