Today, a national daily has reported that the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) has cleared out all the backlog pending COVID tests. While we applaud the efforts put in by the doctors and hospital staff, we find it difficult to believe their claims.
As the data we have accessed showcases, the North South divide in number of beneficiaries is so stark that it exhibits the absolute failure of the state machinery in reaching out to the people in the north. We are not sure, if this is due to lack of initiative on the part of respective District administrations or Gorkhaland Territorial Administration to communicate the State Govt scheme well with the people.
In what may shock many, COVID samples are pending test at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) since the 19th of May.
Sources at Malda Medical College and Hospital have confirmed that 34 new COVID19 positive cases were detected in North Dinajpur in the past 24 hours.
The West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha has written to the Chairman of the Railway Board Vinod Kumar Yadav stating the willingness of West Bengal government to bear the “entire cost of movement by special trains to West Bengal, of migrants of the State stranded in various parts of the country”.
“GTA should follow same procedure as testing lab in North Bengal is situated in Siliguri only. This way, anyone who enter Siliguri can be tested there itself. There won’t be a need to transport collected swab from the hills to the plains, and result will come back quicker. All they need is to arrange team for data entry which they are doing, and swab collectors designated for Darjeeling and Kalimpong to be based out of Siliguri itself,” said the source.
On the 20th of April a Sunday around 10:30 PM, Salkumarhat in Block Number 1, Alipurduars turned into a battlefield. According to sources, a critically ill patient had been referred to Ayush Hospital in Topsikhata. Soon after widespread speculations and rumours allegedly circulated in the social media about his death being due to Coronavirus across Alipurduars district.
On November of 2014, a father was in a rush to go to the temple and told his 11-year-old daughter to hurry. For the father-daughter duo this was an everyday routine, two of them would go to the temple together and head back home. That day, the father had to run errands and the daughter was slightly delayed, so he went ahead. He waited for his daughter to show up at the temple but she didn’t. Around 11 AM when he finally came home, his daughter wasn’t around. When his daughter didn’t come back for the longest time, he started to panic and went around asking. It was almost like his daughter had vanished. A search ensued.
Recounting the horror they had to face, Subham said, “In no time they started hitting us with fists and blows, and one of them hit me with an iron rod at the back, and since we were less in number we stood in a helpless situation and badly injured, wherein I fell unconscious. I sustained injuries on my upper lip, fingers and there are internal injuries as well.”
Beware 2021 West Bengal Elections are coming up, and from what we have seen, there are already attempts at buying Social Media Influence on behalf of IPAC.