Bengal govt to set up Global committee to help revive the economy

Kolkata,07 April(HS): In a unique initiative the West Bengal government has decided to set up a ‘Global Advisory Board for Covid-19 Response Policy’ in the state to suggest how to revive the sagging economy and the industrial scenario of the state in the post-COVID-19 pandemic.

Announcing the composition of the high power Board under the Chairmanship of Nobel laureate and noted economist Avijit Binayak Banerjee and comprising a number of eminent people from different other fields including those like well known economic researcher Pallab Mitra, eminent cardiologists Avijit Chowdhury and Dr Sukumar Banerjee besides some well-known industrialists, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said here last night that considering all aspects of the situation after the present danger was over, the Board would advise the state government on how to go about the revival of the industrial and economic scenario of the country in general and the state of West Bengal in particular.

‘I have already discussed the issue with Avijit Binayak Banerjee over the phone and he had agreed to participate in the exercise for the benefit of the state’, she said.

She, however, neither confirmed nor denied whether another Nobel laureate from Bengal in Economics Amartya Sen would be in the team, saying she was yet to discuss the issue with him.

Meanwhile, once again blaming the Centre for allegedly ‘not fully cooperating’ with the state in terms of supplying the required number of medical kits and other equipment to the state health authorities to effectively deal with COVID-19 pandemic, the Chief minister, providing a detailed list of the materials so far available from the union government,  alleged that against the demand of  1.1 million Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), only about 2.65 lakhs had reached so far.

Similarly, she said, against the order of over 7.9 lakh  N-95  clinical masks, only  about 10,000 had come so far.’ We have also received very little thermal guns against their requirement of over 20,000 in the state’, she alleged further and claimed that it was deliberately been done by the Centre.

In this connection, she also criticised the ‘yellow colour’ of PPEs from the Centre and described it as similar to that of the colour of a political party.