West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Wednesday said that the bi-weekly lockdown will continue till September 17, in what seems to be a continuation of measures implemented in the previous month.
She further said that educational institutes, including schools and colleges, will remain closed in West Bengal till September 20.
After a cabinet meeting, Banerjee said that the metro rail services in Kolkata can resume by observing social distancing and other precautionary norms.
Announcing a series of relaxations, she also allowed resumption of flight operations from six COVID hotspot states
The West Bengal government had imposed a ban till August 31 on passenger flights to Kolkata from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Nagpur, and Ahmedabad in order to contain the spread of coronavirus.
She also demanded that the Centre distribute money from PM CARES fund to states to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.
Taking part in a discussion through video conferencing with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and chief ministers of some opposition ruled states earlier in the week, she also talked about pending Goods and Services Tax (GST) dues of West Bengal.
Banerjee said, "We had to get Rs 4,100 crore in May, June, but we have not received it. So how do we run the government? The pandemic is ongoing, and we are not getting a single paisa... I can tell our state stands to get Rs 53,000 crore from the Centre."
The West Bengal Chief Minister said the state governments have to provide free of cost treatment, medicines, ventilators, ambulances to the people but claimed they were not getting anything from the Centre.
"We are trying our best, but it has become very difficult to pay the salaries to workers. No funds are available, the unorganised sector, MSMEs, farmers are suffering a lot," she said, adding that in India "there is an acute crisis and we cannot speak about it freely, the media also cannot speak."
Meanwhile, West Bengal Assembly will begin on September 9 amidst the pandemic.
