Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said the state government is considering reopening schools and colleges on alternate days after the Durga Puja vacation following a meeting of the Global Advisory Board at Nabanna.
Earlier, Miss Banerjee sought an opinion from Nobel Laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, who heads the Board.

She said that in view of the current Covid situation in the state, the government is in favour of reopening academic institutes. “We discussed the issue. We are planning to reopen schools on every alternative day once the puja vacation is over,” said Miss Banerjee at a press conference in Nabanna. She, however, clarified that the state government will take the final call depending on the situation at that time.

The educational institutes have been closed since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic in March 2020. Although offices and all other sectors have been reopened in phases, the government is yet to allow the academic institutes.
Teachers have been demanding that classes should be resumed in a phased manner while the SFI recently held a demonstration demanding to reopen colleges and universities.

Dr Banerjee, who had flown to the city this morning, discussed Bengal’s strategy to tackle the third wave and praised the government’s Covid management, saying it was “doing an excellent job”. “The state has done a lot of work and handled Covid management efficiently. In the wake of apprehensions of an outbreak of the third Covid wave we discussed taking ahead of the work that has already been started,” he said.

Stressing on the need for vaccination to combat the situation, Dr Banerjee said that it was not that vaccines were getting wasted in West Bengal but the delay was due to the shortage. Advising people to be cautious instead of being afraid, Dr Banerjee said: “There is adequate oxygen supply, oximeters and beds in hospitals. So instead of sitting back, one should opt for treatment at an early stage as delayed treatment often leads to a fatality”.

Speaking on the revival of economy post-Covid, Dr Banerjee said if the country’s economy does not improve then West Bengal alone could not do anything as it was an integrated economy. Miss Banerjee went on to elaborate on the various measures taken by her government to ensure that migrant workers from other states get employed here. “We have provided jobs and free ration to the migrants,” she said.

The chief minister said that the state government has received guidance from the Board and has worked as per their recommendations. She said the Board has held 65 meetings till now to formulate medical and economic responses to the Covid crisis. It may be mentioned here that the Board has already recommended several measures, including scaling up of paediatric facilities, reserving 60 per cent beds for women in Covid hospitals and vaccinating mothers of kids below 12 years on priority.