Howrah: Locals in Tikiyapara violate lockdown; pelt stones and bottles at police personnel

In a shocking incident on Tuesday, a huge crowd of locals in West Bengal's Howrah district chased and pelted stones at police officials on duty. The crowd had gathered in the Tikiyapara area violating the lockdown imposed. As soon as the police confronted the crowd, a scuffle broke out with the crowd attacking officials. Videos surfaced show the crowd chasing officials and pelting bottles and stones at the police personnel. The crowd vandalised a police car too, however, no injuries have been reported yet. 

The incident comes even as Howrah has been recognised as a Red Zone and a complete lockdown has been imposed in the area. The police have also launched a week-long 'Operation Covid Zero' to combat the rising number of cases. As per the media bulleting released on Monday night, there are a total of 504 active COVID-19 cases in the state while a total of 109 have been discharged. 20 deaths due to the virus have been reported in the state.

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COVID crisis in Bengal

The West Bengal government on Monday released a list, saying four districts, including Kolkata, have been declared as red zones in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, and 287 areas in the metropolis identified as containment zones. Howrah, North 24 Parganas and Purba Medinipur districts have been declared as red zones, besides Kolkata.

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Eleven districts have been identified as orange zones, while eight are in the green zone, as per the list released by the state government. Those in the orange zone are South 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Paschim Medinipur, Purba Bardhaman, Paschim Bardhaman, Kalimpong, Nadia, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Murshidabad and Malda.

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The eight districts in the green zone are Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakhin Dinajpur, Birbhum, Bankura, Purulia and Jhargram. As many as 287 areas in Kolkata, the majority of which are in north and central parts of the city, have been identified as containment zones. Chief Secretary Rajiv Sinha said that out of the 287 containment zones in Kolkata, there have been no cases from 18 zones in the last two weeks. Sinha further said that in Howrah district there were 56 containment zones, and from 13 of them there has been no new case of Coronavirus. He added that if no new case is reported from a zone for at least 21 days, the government will announce relaxation there.

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