TMC Minister's farm laws protest blocks highway; forces Covid vaccine van to be diverted

BJP national general secretary and state incharge for West Bengal Kailash Vijayvargiya on Wednesday shared a video in which TMC leader Siddiqullah Chowdhury can be seen protesting against the three agriculture reforms in Bardhaman's district Galsi. Vijayvargiya alleged that when people started protesting after the road was blocked for a long time, the state minister hit people with a wooden stick. "What should we make of this political hypocrisy?" the BJP leader asked. Moreover, as per PTI, a special vehicle carrying Coronavirus vaccine was also stuck in the protests by the TMC Minister.

As per PTI, Purba Bardhaman's Superintendent of Police Bhaskar Mukhopadhyay said that the vaccine-carrying insulated van was diverted over a distance of 5 km through a village owing to the blockade of the national highway connecting Kolkata and New Delhi at the Galsi area.

First lot of COVID vaccines for Bengal arrive in Kolkata

The first consignment of 10 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccines -- 6.89 lakh for Bengal and the rest for nearby states -- arrived in Kolkata on Tuesday afternoon in a special cargo flight from Pune's Serum Institute, a senior official of the state health department said. The vaccines, kept in around 58 boxes, were ferried from the city airport, where it landed around 1.40 pm, in two insulated vans -- one to state-owned Central Family Welfare Stores at Bagbazar and another to the Government Medical Store Depot in Hastings.

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Police pilot cars escorted the two vans which sped through a green corridor, set up for the purpose, he stated. Five walk-in-coolers (WICs) and four walk-in-freezers (WIFs) have been installed at the Bagbazar store for stockpiling 6.89 lakh vials, which would be dispatched to 941 centres across Bengal.

Meanwhile, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on January 10 announced that the state government is making arrangements to vaccinate all the people in the state against Covid-19 vaccine without any cost. Lashing out at Mamata for her "free vaccine" claim, BJP's Babul Supriyo on Tuesday urged her to refrain from such "nonsense."

Addressing media persons in his constituency Asansol on Tuesday, Supriyo further said that the Central government has already announced vaccines free of cost to people. The central government had last week said that the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive would begin on January 16. Frontline workers will be among the first ones to receive the dose.

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(With agency inputs)