West Bengal govt effects change in complete lockdown for fifth time

The West Bengal government on

Wednesday effected a change in the state-wide complete lockdowns in the state for the fifth time and decreased it by a day by withdrawing the slated one on August 28.

The decision to withdraw the complete lockdown on August 28 was taken after several communications were received citing difficulty to conduct business and banking operations because of two days' lockdown during Thursday (August 27) and Friday (August 28) in the last week of the month followed by the one-day lockdown on the following Monday (August 31), the order issued by chief secretary Rajiva Sinha said.

Complete lockdowns were to be held on the three dates as per the earlier decision of the government.

"The state government has considered the requests for the relaxation of the lockdown as would be necessary and essential. Therefore, in partial modification, lockdown on Friday (August 28) as noted earlier is hereby withdrawn," it stated.

Statewide complete lockdown will now be observed on four days for the rest of this month instead of five days as announced earlier.

The dates of state complete lockdown will now be on August 20, 21, 27 and 31, it said.

Earlier this month complete lockdown was observed on August 5 and 8.