Lockdown: Bengal announces relaxations, liquor shops reopen

The West Bengal government announced series of relaxations on Monday in various coronavirus zones, even as reopening of liquors shops witnessed tipplers giving a thumbs down to the social distancing.

The state reported 11 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the death toll to 61 and number of cases climbed to 1,259, Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha said.

Sinha announced a host of relaxations for standalone shops in various zones -- red, green and orange. He added that these concessions might dilute the lockdown for combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Four districts, including Kolkata and Howrah, fall in the red zone, eight are in green and 11 in orange zones in the state. The Union Health Ministry has, however, identified 10 districts in the red zone.

Home Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay announced that the state had added 72 more places to the list of containment zones, taking the total number of such areas in the state to 516.

The government has also launched a mobile app in its official website, 'Egiye Bangla', for people from other states who are stranded in West Bengal due to the lockdown and want to return to their native places.

Sinha said though the Centre had extended the lockdown by two weeks, it had given liberty to the state governments to allow certain activities after assessing the ground situation.

"We are of the opinion that these relaxations allowed by the Union government will dilute lockdown, but we would abide by it," Sinha said, adding: "we want a balance between life and livelihood."