West Bengal assembly will remain adjourned after working on Tuesday as a precautionary measure against the spread of novel coronavirus, an all-party meeting decided on Monday.
In a separate development, Bengal set up 78 checkpoints along its borders with Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Sikkim and Odisha where people entering the state by road are being put under a health check-up in a bid to stop the entry of those suffering from symptoms similar to that of Covid-19.
At the assembly, Speaker Biman Banerjee called the urgent all-party meeting to discuss the situation over Covid-19. The leader decided that all budgetary discussions scheduled during this session would be sent to ‘guillotine’ on Tuesday. A few emergency and pending bills would be passed on Tuesday.
“Since it’s a special situation, all parties have agreed that the assembly session be adjourned,” Manoj Tigga, the leader of Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) legislative party in the assembly, said.
The meeting was also attended by the Congress’ Abdul Mannan, the Leader of Opposition and Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA Sujan Chakraborty, apart from senior Trinamool Congress ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to convene an administrative meeting at the state secretariat on Monday evening to review the preparedness of the state health administration in dealing with the situation over novel coronavirus.
Though there has not been a single confirmed case of coronavirus, the state has closed down schools, colleges, and universities, while several prominent temples and museums have shut their doors for the common public for the time being.
The checkpoints were the latest measure taken by the state government.
Of the 78 checkpoints the state put up on Monday, 42 are along the borders with Jharkhand in its districts of Purulia, Birbhum, Jhargram and West Burdwan and 13 are in North Dinajpur district along borders with Bihar.
“Anyone found with symptoms similar to that of Covid-19 will straight be sent to the isolation ward of the nearest government hospital,” a senior official of the state health department, who did not want to be named, said.
Staff from the state health department along with the police are manning these checkpoints where people entering the state are undergoing thermal scanning.
