No anti-Covid-19 lockdown in West Bengal on Sept 12, announces Mamata Banerjee

The complete lockdown was called on Sept 11 and 12 to stem the spread of Coronavirus.

In a series of tweets, Banerjee said, "GoWB had initially announced a statewide lockdown on Sep 11th & 12th. Considering the NEET 2020 examination scheduled on 13th, we have received numerous requests from the student community on lifting lockdown norms on 12th, helping ease their travel to examination centres."

"Keeping their interest in mind, while keeping the statewide lockdown as it is on Sep 11th, it has been decided to cancel the lockdown on 12th, so that the students can attend the examination on 13th without any apprehensions or concerns. I wish them all the very best."

Supporting the government's decision, CPI-M MLA Sujan Chakraborty told India Blooms, "I had written a letter stating lockdown on Sept 12 is totally unjustified because of the examinations. I don't know why it took so much time to cancel. It would have been wrong if the lockdown was not withdrawn."

Taking a dig at Banerjee, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell head Amit Malviya tweeted, "Facing wrath of aggrieved students and under sustained pressure from the BJP, Pishi has been forced to cancel her vendetta-driven, unilaterally declared statewide lockdown on the 12Sept, a day before NEET.

"One just hopes her admin will also facilitate seamless conduct of NEET..."

West Bengal on Wednesday reported 3,107 new Covid-19 infections and 53 deaths, taking the tally of infections to 1,90,063. 

The state had witnessed complete lockdown on Sept 7.