State government will take necessary precautions and restrictions to combat Coronavirus till 21 May though the final decision on extending the lockdown will be taken by the Centre, said chief minister Mamata Banerjee at Nabanna today.

During this period, lockdown will be imposed strictly in four districts namely Kolkata (227 areas), Howrah (56 areas), North 24 Parganas (57 areas) and East Midnapore (8 areas) that are under red zone. In 11 districts (South 24 Parganas, Hooghly, West Midnapore, East Burdwan, West Burdwan, Kalimpong, Nadia, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Murshidabad and Malda) under orange zone some relaxations would be offered and for remaining eight districts (Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur, Birbhum, Bankura, Purulia and Jhargram) in green zone further relaxations would be given.

But relaxations and restrictions would change if a zone shifts from orange to red or visa versa, she said. “We want to remain careful till 21 May as I’ve already said that 49 days are very sensitive.Twenty five per cent of government employees are attending office and educational institutions have already been closed,” she said.

Alleging lack of clarity in the lockdown directives issued by the Centre, Banerjee said, “We are being told to impose the lockdown strictly but at the same time directives are being issued to open shops. If all the shops are opened then we can’t stop people from going there or from keeping the roads empty. The state chief secretary will seek a clarification from cabinet secretary on this issue,” she said.

“We will accept all directives if these are issued properly and there is transparency and non interference,” she said. Banerjee further lamented that it becomes difficult for state officials to report to the central team constantly instead of focusing on work. “There should be some justification in sending the teams. Teams can come for assistance but not for non cooperation,” she said.

Banerjee said that the Centre should come up with long term, mid term and short term plans in consultation with the states for handling the present situation. She said that she would speak to the other chief ministers in this regard adding that she sat mum for three hours at the video conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi today as there was no scope for the state government to give opinion. The total Corona active cases is 504 with 109 patients released in the last 24 hours.

Since yesterday, 1150 samples were tested. The recovery rate in Bengal is higher than national average and fatality rate of 2.6 per cent is better than national average of 3.1 per cent. According to Banerjee, till normalcy prevails borders must be closed, all flights (domestic and international) and train services stopped. Till Centre provides clarification, home delivery of non essential items would be allowed in Bengal.

Further state government has permitted corona positive patients to remain in home quarantine if they are reluctant to go to hospital and treatment would be through telemedicine. She even criticised the Centre’s decision to freeze dearness allowances of central government employees saying instead of putting employees in trouble there should have been other reformations.

Bengal is the most humane government as unlike many other states, salaries have not been slashed to combat the existing financial crisis, she said while complaining that the Centre has not given any assistance to combat Corona. She reiterated that special financial packages should be announced for MSME and unorganised sector.